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Match Summary

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the interval and equalise through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker nets a late winner for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the last 16.

The London club's hopes of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to triumph in their home stadium.

Both sides entered this game with identical records in the initial stage of this season's tournament, having secured three victories, drawn, and suffered one defeat to have accrued ten points.

For large parts there was very little to distinguish them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when the Brazilian converted Reece James' cross.

But Atalanta always looked a danger going forwards, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker causing problems for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the intensity and justly drew level when ex-West Ham striker nodded home a cross.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta got the winner late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

Chelsea tried to rescue a draw late on but a superb save by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Pedro.

The result means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that progress automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two group stage matches left to play.

Atalanta, meanwhile, climb up to third, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Run Continues

This was a extremely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them in a strong position to secure the top-eight position they require to bypass the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lost focus in defence with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta capitalised completely.

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 disappointed to be leaving with nothing after taking the lead.

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

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

Excessive Changes Proving Costly?

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

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

The coach will view rotation as necessary as he tries to handle players' minutes and compete both at domestically and in Europe, but he stated the key nucleus of players stays the same for important games.

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

"If you see the five changes that we did relative to Bournemouth 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."

What's Next for These Teams?

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 same time.