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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the break and equalise through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere nets a last-gasp winner for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea slide to eleventh place in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were hit hard as Atalanta fought back to win in Bergamo.

Both sides went into this match with matching records in the league phase of this year's tournament, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to be on 10 points.

For much of the game there was not much to choose between them in this encounter too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian finished Reece James' delivery.

But The Serie A side consistently appeared a danger going forward, with former Premier League attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the defence.

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

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta got the winner in the closing stages when the Blues defence backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a low shot.

The visitors attempted to salvage a point in stoppage time but a superb save by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the next round—to 11th with two league phase fixtures left to play.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, climb up to third place, three points clear of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Sequence Persists

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 play-offs.

But they let their concentration slip in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta capitalised completely.

The Italian side are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a tough examination for the visitors, but they will be disappointed to be departing with nothing after taking the lead.

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

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

Excessive Changes Turning Out to Be Costly?

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

The rotations here came after he made the same number for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the draw with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

The coach will view rotation as necessary as he attempts to manage players' workloads and compete both at home and abroad, but he insisted the core group of players remains the unchanged 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 the Gunners," he said.

"If you see the five alterations that we made relative to Bournemouth it is a change but it is the same eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The ones who took to the field this evening are the individuals who feature in almost all the games."

What Next for These Clubs?

Chelsea's next Champions League fixture sees them host Pafos on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.