Kostoulas stars as Brighton cruise into Conference League

Brighton & Hove Albion booked their place in the league phase of the Conference League with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Tromsø in the second leg of their play-off tie on Thursday, sealing a 4-0 aggregate triumph.

After a goalless first leg last week, Charalampos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper, Mats Wieffer and Olivier Boscagli were all on target to cap a rampant display from Fabian Hürzeler's Seagulls in front of their own fans.

Kostoulas breaks the deadlock

Kostoulas missed two quickfire chances inside the opening five minutes, with the second kept out by Jakob Haugaard, but the Tromsø goalkeeper could do nothing when the 19-year-old curled into the far corner from outside the box in the 22nd minute.

De Cuyper, who also netted in Brighton's Premier League rout of Aston Villa, doubled the Seagulls' advantage just after the half-hour mark as he robbed Leon Hien inside the opposition box before beating the keeper.

It was 3-0 just five minutes later. After Kostoulas failed to control a driven cross from the left wing, Wieffer managed to take the ball in his stride before firing in to hand Brighton plenty of breathing room.

Dominant numbers tell the story

Brighton took their foot off the pedal after half-time, but they still managed to add a fourth late on; Boscagli, who had an earlier rebound goal ruled out for offside, saw a deflected strike from distance find the bottom-right corner to round off a successful outing.

This was as dominant a performance as Hürzeler could have hoped for, with his side accumulating 2.72 expected goals (xG), 2.22 of which came in the first half, while restricting Tromsø to just 0.22 from five attempts.

Kostoulas was responsible for eight of Brighton's 21 attempts in the second leg, while he also led his team-mates for touches in the box (14) and aerial duels won (5/6) to go along with his goal and assist.

A selection headache ahead of Chelsea

The teenager had been restricted to substitute appearances in the first leg of this tie and against Villa last weekend, though he has now handed Hürzeler a selection headache ahead of Sunday's trip to Chelsea.

There was also an impressive performance from another teenager, Luka Vuskovic, who won a team-high eight duels (8/9), while also leading Brighton in possession won (six), interceptions (three) and completed passes (99).