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Match Summary

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the break and equalise through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere nets a late winner for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the knockout phase.

Chelsea's hopes of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were hit hard as Atalanta fought back to win in Bergamo.

The two teams went into this fixture with the same points tallies in the league phase of this season's tournament, having won, drawn, and lost to have accrued 10 points.

For extended periods there was very little to choose between them in this contest too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro converted Reece James' delivery.

But The Serie A side remained a danger going on the attack, with former Premier League attacker causing problems for the defence.

James shot wide in the second half but the home team raised the pressure and rightfully levelled when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta got the winner late on when the Blues defence backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a low strike.

The visitors tried to salvage a draw in stoppage time but a superb stop by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea fall out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that progress automatically for the next round—to 11th with two league phase fixtures left to play.

Atalanta, meanwhile, leap up to third place, three points ahead of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Run Persists

This was a deeply frustrating result for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to achieve the top eight finish they require to avoid the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta seized the moment.

The Italian side are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging test for the visitors, but they will be frustrated to be leaving with nothing after taking the lead.

But the bigger picture is that this extends Chelsea's worrying sequence of results in all tournaments.

Since defeating Barcelona 3-0 at the close of November they are now without a win in their last four outings.

Excessive Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five alterations for this match as he continued his run of moving players in and out of the first team.

The changes here came after he made the same number for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

Maresca will view squad rotation as vital as he tries to handle players' fitness and challenge both at domestically and in Europe, but he insisted the central contingent of players stays the same for crucial games.

"I believe in this match [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, FC Barcelona, and Arsenal," he stated.

"If you look at the five alterations that we did relative to Bournemouth it is a change but it is the eight or nine players who played in that match.

"The ones who played this evening are the ones playing almost all the games."

Up Next for These Sides?

Chelsea's next European game sees them welcome Pafos on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.