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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the break and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a late winner for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to 11th in the group stage of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the last 16.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockouts were hit hard as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to claim victory in Bergamo.

Both sides went into this match with identical points tallies in the initial stage of this season's competition, having won, tied one, and lost to be on 10 points.

For much of the game there was little to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro converted Reece James' delivery.

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

James shot wide in the after the break but Atalanta increased the intensity and rightfully drew level when ex-West Ham striker headed in a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the winning goal late on when the Chelsea defenders retreated from Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

Chelsea tried to salvage a draw in stoppage time but a excellent stop by Marco Carnesecchi denied Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the positions that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two league phase matches remaining.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, jump up to third place, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Form Persists

This was a deeply disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them well placed to achieve the top eight finish they need to avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italians are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a tough examination for the Blues, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with no points after securing the early advantage.

But the wider issue is that this continues Chelsea's worrying sequence of form in all competitions.

Since defeating Barcelona 3-0 at the close of November they are now winless in their last four matches.

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Expensive?

Manager Enzo Enzo Maresca made five rotations for this game as he continued his run of moving players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here came after he made the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

Maresca will see squad rotation as essential as he attempts to handle players' fitness and compete both at home and in Europe, but he maintained the central contingent of players remains the same for key fixtures.

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

"If you see the five changes that we did relative to Bournemouth it is a change but it involves the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Clubs?

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

The Italian team, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.