Tromso vs Brighton

Tromso host Brighton in the UEFA Europa Conference League play-off first leg on Thursday 21 August 2026, with the Romssa Arena in Tromsø set to stage a meeting between the Norwegian side and their Premier League visitors. Fabian Hürzeler’s team, beaten by Manchester City on the final day of last season, arrive with a depleted squad and the knowledge that defeat across two legs could cause problems throughout the campaign.

Team News and Injury Latest

Brighton will be without several first-team players for the trip north. Carlos Baleba is sidelined with ankle ligament damage sustained in pre-season training, while Kaoru Mitoma remains unavailable as he recovers from hamstring surgery that also ruled him out of Japan’s World Cup campaign. The most significant blow concerns Yankuba Minteh, who suffered a right leg injury during a 3-0 friendly win at home to Roma. Hürzeler has confirmed the 22-year-old winger will miss “several weeks”, with separate reports suggesting he could be absent for up to three months.

Pascal Struijk has returned to training and is closing in on a squad return, though the play-off first leg is likely to come too soon. Diego Gomez and Maxim De Cuyper, both fresh from World Cup duty with Paraguay and Belgium respectively, filled the wide roles in the final warm-up victory over Bologna and are expected to start again. Summer signing Zadok Johanna, a £21.8 million arrival from AIK, offers further depth but is still adapting to English football.