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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the interval and equalise through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to 11th in the group stage of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were hit hard as Atalanta overturned a deficit to win in Bergamo.

Both sides entered this match with identical points tallies in the initial stage of this season's competition, having secured three victories, drawn, and lost to be on ten points.

For much of the game there was very little to choose between them in this contest too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when the Brazilian finished Reece James' delivery.

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

James fired wide in the after the break but Atalanta increased the intensity and justly equalised when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a powerful shot straight at the keeper but they secured the decisive strike late on when the Chelsea defenders retreated from the midfielder, who made no mistake with a low finish.

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

The result means Chelsea drop out of the top eight—the positions that progress automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two league phase matches remaining.

Atalanta, in contrast, jump up to third, three points clear of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Form Continues

This was a deeply frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them in a strong position to secure the top-eight finish they require to avoid the uncertainty of the play-offs.

But they lost focus in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italians are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult test for the visitors, but they will be annoyed to be departing with nothing after taking the lead.

But the bigger picture is that this extends Chelsea's troubling sequence of results in all tournaments.

Since beating Barcelona 3-0 at the end of November they are now winless in their last four outings.

Too Many Changes Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five rotations for this game as he continued his strategy of rotating players in and out of the first team.

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

Maresca will view rotation as necessary as he attempts to manage players' minutes and compete both at home and in Europe, but he maintained the key nucleus of players remains the same for important games.

"I think tonight [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who played against Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, and Arsenal," he said.

"If you see the five alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth it may be different but it involves the eight or nine players who played in that match.

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

Up Next for These Teams?

Chelsea's next European game sees them welcome the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

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