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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker nets a late decisive goal for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the last 16.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents fought back to win in their home stadium.

The two teams entered this match with matching points tallies in the league phase of this season's competition, having won, drawn, and lost to sit on 10 points.

For extended periods there was not much to distinguish them in this contest too, although Chelsea got their noses in front in the first half when the Brazilian turned in Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta consistently appeared a danger going forward, with former Premier League attacker creating issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the intensity and deservedly equalised when former West Ham United striker nodded home a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta secured the winning goal late on when the Chelsea defence backed off the midfielder, who took full advantage with a low finish.

The visitors attempted to rescue a point in stoppage time but a superb stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Joao Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea fall out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two league phase games remaining.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, jump up to third place, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Sequence Continues

This was a extremely disappointing result for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to secure the top eight position they need to avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and their opponents took full advantage.

The Italians are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult examination for the visitors, but they will be disappointed to be leaving with nothing after taking the early advantage.

But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's troubling sequence 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 games.

Too Many Changes Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca made five changes for this game as he persisted with his run of rotating players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here came after he implemented the identical amount for the loss to Leeds and six for the draw with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Atalanta.

The coach will view rotation as essential as he attempts to manage players' fitness and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he stated the key nucleus of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.

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

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

"The ones who played tonight are the individuals who feature in almost all the matches."

What's Next for These Sides?

Chelsea's next European game sees them welcome Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (20:00 GMT).

The Italian team, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the same time.