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Key Moments

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the break and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp decisive goal for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea fall to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockouts.

Chelsea's hopes of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were dealt a blow as Atalanta fought back to claim victory in Bergamo.

Each club entered this match with identical records in the initial stage of this year's competition, having won, drawn, and suffered one defeat to have accrued 10 points.

For much of the game there was little to separate them in this contest too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian turned in the captain's cross.

But Atalanta remained a danger going forwards, with former Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the backline.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta upped the intensity and deservedly levelled when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but they secured the winning goal late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who seized the opportunity with a driven strike.

Chelsea tried to salvage a point in stoppage time but a brilliant save by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea drop out of the top eight—the spots that progress automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two league phase fixtures left to play.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, climb up to third, three points ahead of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Form Continues

This was a hugely frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them in a strong position to secure the top eight finish they require to bypass the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in defence with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italian side are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a tough test for the Blues, but they will be disappointed to be departing with no points after securing the lead.

But the wider issue is that this extends Chelsea's concerning sequence of form in all competitions.

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

Too Many Changes Proving Expensive?

Manager Enzo Enzo Maresca made five alterations for this match as he persisted with his run of moving players in and out of the starting 11.

The changes here followed after he implemented the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

Maresca will view rotation as essential as he tries to handle players' workloads and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he insisted the core group of players remains the unchanged for key games.

"I believe in this match [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, Barcelona, and the Gunners," he stated.

"If you see the five alterations that we did compared to the previous game it is a change but it is the same eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The ones who played this evening are the individuals playing almost all the matches."

Up Next for These Teams?

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

The Italian team, on the other hand, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.