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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker scores a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to eleventh place in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams progress automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's hopes of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockouts were hit hard as Atalanta overturned a deficit to claim victory in Bergamo.

Each club went into this fixture with the same records in the league phase of this year's tournament, having won, tied one, and suffered one defeat to have accrued 10 points.

For large parts there was little to separate them in this encounter too, although Chelsea went ahead in the first half when Joao Pedro converted Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta remained a danger going forward, with former Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the after the break but the home team upped the intensity and justly equalised when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the decisive strike late on when the Blues defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a low strike.

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

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage matches left to play.

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

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Sequence Continues

This was a hugely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them in a strong position to secure the top-eight finish they need to avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lost focus in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italians are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult test for the Blues, but they will be annoyed to be departing with nothing after taking the early advantage.

But the wider issue is that this perpetuates Chelsea's worrying streak of form in all tournaments.

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

Excessive Changes Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca made five changes for this match as he persisted with his run of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

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

The coach will see squad rotation as essential as he tries to manage players' fitness and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he maintained the central contingent of players remains the unchanged for key fixtures.

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

"If you look at the five changes that we did relative to the previous game it is different but it is the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The players who took to the field tonight are the individuals playing almost all the games."

What Next for These Sides?

The Blues' next European fixture sees them welcome Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (8pm GMT).

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