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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker scores a last-gasp decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockouts.

Chelsea's hopes of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were hit hard as Atalanta came from behind to win in their home stadium.

Each club went into this fixture with the same points tallies in the initial stage of this year's tournament, having won, drawn, and suffered one defeat to be on ten points.

For large parts there was very little to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro finished Reece James' cross.

But The Serie A side remained a danger going forward, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker creating problems for the backline.

James fired wide in the after the break but the home team raised the intensity and rightfully drew level when ex-West Ham striker nodded home a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta got the winning goal in the closing stages when the Chelsea defenders backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a low shot.

Chelsea tried to salvage a point in stoppage time but a excellent stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the positions that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two group stage matches left to play.

Atalanta, in contrast, jump up to third, three points ahead of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Sequence Persists

This was a deeply frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping 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 Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italians are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging examination for the Blues, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after taking the early advantage.

But the broader context is that this extends Chelsea's worrying run of results in all tournaments.

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

Excessive Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

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

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

The coach will view squad rotation as necessary as he attempts to handle players' fitness and challenge both at domestically and in Europe, but he insisted the key nucleus of players remains the unchanged for important fixtures.

"I think tonight [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who played against Tottenham Hotspur, FC Barcelona, and the Gunners," he commented.

"If you see the five changes that we made relative to the previous game it is different but it is the eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The ones who took to the field tonight are the ones who feature in almost all the games."

Up Next for These Clubs?

Chelsea's next European game sees them welcome Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (8pm GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, are at home to Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.