Hearts and Hibernian will meet at Hampden on Sunday, 1 November 2026 (15:00 GMT) in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, with a place in the final at stake and the Edinburgh rivals arriving in markedly different moods. Hearts sold their initial allocation for the game in three days and a second wave took their support beyond 23,000. More than 18,000 Hibernian fans will be there, but some seats at their end of the national stadium will be empty, a sign of trepidation among their followers.
The form guide explains the contrast. Hearts sit third in the Premiership and won their third successive Edinburgh derby in early September. Hibernian are second bottom and have taken only two points from their past eight outings. Hearts also have a 100% record in derbies played at Hampden, although all of those previous meetings came in the Scottish Cup. The rivals first met on Christmas Day 1875 but had to wait until 2006 for their first meeting in Glasgow’s Southside, when Paul Hartley scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 semi-final win and two Hibernian players were sent off. The 2012 final brought a 5-1 Hearts win, with Rudi Skacel scoring twice and a Hibernian player receiving a red card. The past two contests were tighter: Hearts won 2-1 in both the 2020 and 2022 semi-finals, with Hibernian having a player dismissed in the latter and missing a penalty in the former.
Sunday’s game will be the first competitive meeting between the managers. Wouter Vrancken led Sint-Truiden to third in Belgium last season, their best finish in 60 years, while Marink Reedijk won the Belgian second tier title with Beveren in an ‘invincibles’ campaign. Reedijk is still waiting for his first Hibernian victory: a drab draw at St Mirren on Wednesday followed three defeats since he replaced David Gray and began implementing a new style at Easter Road. Hibernian remain defensively fragile, without a league clean sheet, and blunt in attack. In Reedijk’s first game they had four efforts on target, then three, then two, while their goal at St Mirren came from their only effort on target. By contrast, Hearts have had 22 attempts on target in their past four domestic outings, including a 7-1 mauling at Celtic, and have scored 24 league goals to Hibernian’s 11. Three of those Hearts goals came at Easter Road when they bossed the first half with greater energy and intensity than the hosts.
Vrancken said: “You have to put your emotions and energy in the things you have to do on the pitch and go from there. We did really well there and we have to do also on Sunday. It’s a totally different game. New manager, new style, new competition. It’s also an all-or-nothing game. So all different circumstances. The first game doesn’t matter anymore. We have to look forward to this one.” Reedijk is looking forward to a “special match” with “some surprises somewhere”, adding: “It’s not only the derby, it’s also a semi-final, and it’s one step away from a final, so that is a double way of excitement.”
Hearts are seeking silverware after coming close in the title race last season. They have not lifted a trophy since 2012 and last won the League Cup in 1962, while Hibernian have won the competition three times since then. Both teams have long injury lists, but Martin Boyle’s return is a boost for Hibernian. The 33-year-old has scored five derby goals, has three league goals this season and is the club’s top scorer, and he lit up the 2021 semi-finals with a first-half hat-trick in a win over Rangers. Hearts have five players on three goals or more, with Claudio Braga and Calvin Miller both moving on to five in Wednesday’s thrilling draw at home to Rangers. Vrancken’s side dominated for long spells in that game but faded and might have lost at the death but for a mis-timed jump from Dujon Sterling. Early exits from both cup competitions may have benefited Hearts’ surprise league challenge last season, but with Conference League group games in the mix this time, the action is coming thick and fast. The question is whether Hibernian can stay in the game long enough to test that stamina, and they cannot afford another Hampden red card after a foolish sending off killed their momentum in the last derby following a goal back.