Brighton go into the first leg of their Conference League playoff with four major availability concerns, and that has put the focus on squad depth rather than reputation. Carlos Baleba, Stefanos Tzimas and Kaoru Mitoma are all major doubts, while Yankuba Minteh sustained an injury against Roma and may be missing for up to three months. Danny Welbeck has also left Brighton and James Milner has retired, leaving Fabian Hurzeler to deal with a summer of change.
Tromso's edge in match sharpness
Tromso have already played their way through qualifiers and arrive in the thick of another Eliteserien campaign, which gives them a different kind of readiness. They beat CFR Cluj 7-1 on aggregate in Conference League qualifying, and Isak Dahlqvist scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 first-leg win in the third qualifying round.
Heine Larsen and Dahlqvist have both scored three goals in Europe this season, so the Norwegian side are not leaning on one hot streak or one player. Brighton still carry the stronger overall name, and they did beat Roma 3-0 and Bologna 1-0 in preseason, but this first leg feels shaped by who is available rather than who is fancied.
The main question is whether Brighton can manage the tie without pushing already stretched options too hard. Tromso have enough rhythm to make that awkward, and the opening leg should tell us a lot about how much margin Brighton really have with this injury list.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
