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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the interval and draw level through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker grabs a late decisive goal for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to eleventh place in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's ambitions of qualifying automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were dealt a blow as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to win in Bergamo.

The two teams went into this fixture with identical records in the league phase of this year's tournament, having won, tied one, and suffered one defeat to have accrued ten points.

For much of the game there was little to distinguish them in this encounter too, although 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 danger going on the attack, with former Premier League attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the after the break but Atalanta raised the pressure and rightfully drew level when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta secured the winner in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who took full advantage with a driven shot.

Chelsea tried to rescue a draw late on but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two group stage fixtures remaining.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, leap up to third, three points ahead of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Form Persists

This was a extremely disappointing result for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them well placed to secure the top-eight finish they require 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 challenging examination for the Blues, but they will be disappointed to be departing with no points after securing the early advantage.

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

Since defeating the Spanish giants 3-0 at the close of November they are now winless in their last four games.

Excessive Rotations Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five changes for this match as he persisted with his run of rotating players in and out of the starting lineup.

The rotations here followed after he made the same number for the defeat to Leeds and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

Maresca will view squad rotation as essential as he attempts to manage players' minutes and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he stated the central contingent of players remains the same for key games.

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

"If you see the five alterations that we did compared to the previous game it may be different but it is the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The players who took to the field this evening are the ones playing almost all the games."

Up Next for These Sides?

Chelsea's next European fixture sees them welcome the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, on the other hand, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the same time.