Hearts sold their initial Hampden allocation in three days and then went back for more, taking their numbers past 23,000. Hibs will bring more than 18,000, which is a lot of people for a club sitting second bottom of the Premiership with two points from their last eight games, and there will still be a few empty seats at their end. That gap in the stands says most of what you need to know about how these two clubs arrive at Sunday's Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
Hampden has not been kind to Hibs
Hearts and Hibernian have been playing each other since Christmas Day 1875, but they did not meet in Glasgow until 2006. That first one finished 4-0, Paul Hartley helping himself to a hat-trick while Hibs had two men sent off. The 2012 final was worse: 5-1, a Rudi Skacel double, another red card.
The two most recent meetings there were tighter. Hearts won 2-1 in the 2020 semi-final, Hibs missing a penalty, and 2-1 again in 2022, Hibs losing a man once more. Hearts have never lost a derby at Hampden.
Add that to a third straight derby win in early September and the historical weight sits firmly on one side.
Two managers who nearly met in Belgium
The subplot is a good one. Wouter Vrancken and Marink Reedijk were both set to be working in the Belgian top flight this season before each stepped away. Vrancken had taken Sint-Truiden to third, their best finish in 60 years. Reedijk had won the second tier with Beveren without losing a game.
Vrancken's Hearts sit third and have scored 24 league goals. Reedijk's Hibs have 11, no league clean sheet, and no win at all under him yet. His first three games were defeats before a flat draw at St Mirren on Wednesday. The shot counts in those four matches read four on target, then three, then two, then one, and that one went in.
Hearts, by contrast, have managed 22 attempts on target across their last four domestic games, and that includes being taken apart 7-1 at Celtic.
"It's also an all-or-nothing game," Vrancken said. "New manager, new style, new competition. The first game doesn't matter anymore. We have to look forward to this one."
Reedijk is framing it as a bonus rather than a burden. "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."
Who decides it
Martin Boyle is back for Hibs, which matters. He is 33, he has scored five derby goals, he put a first-half hat-trick past Rangers in the 2021 semi-finals, and his three league goals this season make him the club's leading scorer. On a day when Hibs will likely spend long spells without the ball, he is the one player capable of turning a half-chance into a final.
Hearts have five players on three goals or more. Claudio Braga and Calvin Miller both reached five in Wednesday's draw with Rangers, a game Hearts dominated for long stretches before fading, and one they might have lost late had Dujon Sterling timed his jump better.
That fade is the one thing Hibs can work with. Hearts are juggling Conference League group games this season, where last term an early exit from both cups arguably helped their league push. Hibs lost their momentum in the last derby by getting a man sent off after pulling a goal back, and at Hampden they have form for exactly that.
Hearts have not won anything since 2012 and have not held the League Cup since 1962. Hibs have won it three times in that period. For a club that spent last season gatecrashing a title race, finally lifting something would say more about their progress than any league position.
Fixture details: Premier Sports Cup semi-final, Hearts v Hibernian, Hampden Park, Sunday 1 November 2026, 15:00 GMT. Both squads carry long injury lists. Prediction: Hearts to win, but closer than the form table suggests.
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