Hearts will aim to recapture their form tomorrow night as they travel to Switzerland to take on Swiss Super League champions FC Thun in the UEFA Conference League.
Wouter Vrancken’s side were defeated 2-1 at Barclays Hampden on Sunday by rivals Hibernian in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals, marking Hearts’ first defeat to Hibs at the national stadium.
Aside from a disappointing result on Sunday, Hearts have only recorded one victory in their last six games, albeit they’ve taken on the likes of Celtic, Rangers and Mohamed Salah’s Trabzonspor in this run.
Despite a poor run of form, Hearts still sit third in the Scottish Premiership, and an opening day draw to FC Nordsjælland in the Conference League has them sat 28th in the table, only separated from the play-off spots by goal difference.
Much has also been made about Hearts’ injury list recently, Calvin Miller and Tomas Magnusson both added to the already large injury list on Sunday, something Vrancken attributes to Hearts’ defeat. Their injury list currently sits at 10 with Craig Halkett, Christian Borchgrevink, Harry Milne, Oisin McEntee, Blair Spittal, Tom Renaud, Eduardo Ageu and Rogers Mato also sidelined.
Yan Dhanda replaced Magnusson on Sunday, but has not been included in Hearts’ European squad list, leaving Laurent Mendy as the club’s only available midfielder for tomorrow night’s clash.
As for FC Thun, they remarkably won their first Swiss Super League title last season after being promoted the year prior. They find themselves in the Conference League after a 4-3 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League qualifiers. They would then drop to the Europa League qualifiers to defeat Icelandic side Víkingur Reykjavík, before a 9-2 aggregate loss to Lech Poznan would reside them to Europe’s third tier competition.
Thun currently sit 32nd in the Conference League after losing their opening two matches to FC Twente and Dinamo Zagreb respectively. It’s been a less than ideal start for their title defence as they currently sit 9th in the 12-team Swiss Super League. However, Thun will come into the match in good spirits after a 5-4 win away to bottom-placed Lussane-Sport on Sunday. Despite being 4-1 down at one stage, the Swiss champions scored three goals in the final ten minutes to claim all three points.
