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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere nets a last-gasp decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's chances of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockouts were dealt a blow as their Italian opponents fought back to triumph in Bergamo.

Each club went into this fixture with identical points tallies in the initial stage of this year's competition, having won, drawn, and lost to have accrued ten points.

For extended periods there was little to separate them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when the Brazilian converted Reece James' cross.

But The Serie A side remained a threat going forwards, with former Premier League attacker creating problems for the backline.

James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the intensity and rightfully equalised when ex-West Ham striker headed in a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but they scored the winning goal late on when the Blues defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who took full advantage with a low shot.

The visitors attempted to rescue a draw in stoppage time but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the positions that progress automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two group stage matches remaining.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, jump up to third place, three points clear of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Run Continues

This was a hugely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them in a strong position to secure the top eight position they need to bypass the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lacked concentration in their defensive duties with seven minutes left on the clock and their opponents seized the moment.

The Italian side are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult test for the visitors, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after securing the early advantage.

But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's troubling sequence of results in all tournaments.

Since beating Barcelona 3-0 at the end of November they are now winless in their last four games.

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five alterations for this match as he persisted with his policy of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

The changes here came after he implemented the same number for the loss to Leeds and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Atalanta.

The coach will view rotation as vital as he tries to manage players' fitness and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he maintained the core group of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.

"I believe in this match [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, and the Gunners," he stated.

"If you look at the five changes that we made compared to Bournemouth it is a change but it involves the same eight or nine players who played in that match.

"The ones who took to the field this evening are the individuals who feature in almost all the games."

Up Next for These Clubs?

The Blues' next European game sees them host Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (20:00 GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the same time.