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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the break and draw level through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea fall to 11th in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockouts.

Chelsea's chances of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockouts were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents came from behind to triumph in Bergamo.

Each club entered this match with identical records in the initial stage of this year's tournament, having won, tied one, and lost to sit on 10 points.

For extended periods there was not much to distinguish them in this encounter too, although Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro turned in Reece James' cross.

But The Serie A side remained a threat going forward, with former Premier League attacker causing issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the after the break but the home team increased the pressure and justly levelled when ex-West Ham striker headed in a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a powerful shot straight at the keeper but Atalanta secured the decisive strike late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who took full advantage with a powerful finish.

The visitors attempted to rescue a draw in stoppage time but a excellent stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea drop out of the top eight—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage matches left to play.

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

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Form Persists

This was a hugely disappointing result for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them well placed to achieve the top-eight position they need to avoid the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lost focus in defence with seven minutes remaining and their opponents seized the moment.

The Italian side are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging test for the visitors, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with no points after taking the lead.

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

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

Excessive Changes Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five rotations for this game as he continued his strategy of moving players in and out of the starting lineup.

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

The coach will see squad rotation as essential as he tries to handle players' minutes and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he insisted the key nucleus of players remains the same for important games.

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

"If you see the five changes that we did compared to Bournemouth it is different but it is the eight or nine players who played Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Teams?

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

The Italian team, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.