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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the interval and draw level through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere nets a late decisive goal for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

Chelsea's chances of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were dealt a blow as Atalanta came from behind to win in Bergamo.

The two teams entered this fixture with identical points tallies in the league phase of this season's tournament, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to be on ten points.

For much of the game there was not much to separate them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when Joao Pedro turned in the captain's delivery.

But Atalanta consistently appeared a danger going on the attack, with former Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the backline.

James fired wide in the second half but the home team upped the pressure and justly equalised when ex-West Ham striker nodded home a centering pass.

The winger hammered a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they secured the winner late on when the Blues defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a low shot.

Chelsea tried to salvage a point in stoppage time but a excellent stop by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two league phase games remaining.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, jump up to third, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Sequence Persists

This was a hugely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them in a strong position to achieve the top-eight finish they require to avoid the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta seized the moment.

The Italian side are in rich vein of 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 nothing after securing the lead.

But the bigger picture is that this perpetuates Chelsea's troubling run of results in all competitions.

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

Excessive Changes Proving Costly?

Manager Enzo Maresca made five changes for this match as he continued his strategy of moving players in and out of the starting lineup.

The rotations here came after he made the same number for the loss to Leeds and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

Maresca will view squad rotation as vital as he tries to manage players' workloads and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he stated the core group of players stays the same for important games.

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

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

"The ones who took to the field tonight are the ones playing almost all the matches."

Up Next for These Sides?

The Blues' next Champions League fixture sees them welcome Pafos on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

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