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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the interval and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a late winner for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockouts.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were suffered a setback as Atalanta overturned a deficit to triumph in their home stadium.

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

For large parts there was little to separate them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian finished Reece James' delivery.

But The Serie A side remained a threat going on the attack, with former Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the defence.

Reece James shot wide in the after the break but the home team raised the intensity and rightfully drew level when ex-West Ham striker headed in a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they got the winner in the closing stages when the Chelsea defenders retreated from the midfielder, who seized the opportunity with a driven shot.

Chelsea tried to salvage a draw late on but a superb save by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The result means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage fixtures left to play.

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

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Form Continues

This was a extremely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them in a strong position to achieve the top eight finish they require to bypass the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta capitalised completely.

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 frustrated to be leaving with no points after taking the lead.

But the bigger picture is that this perpetuates Chelsea's worrying streak of results in all competitions.

Since defeating 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 Costly?

Manager Enzo Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this match as he persisted with his policy of moving players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here followed after he made the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

Maresca will view squad rotation as vital as he attempts to handle players' minutes and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he maintained the key nucleus of players stays the unchanged for important games.

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

"If you look at the five changes that we did relative to Bournemouth it is different but it involves the same eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The players who took to the field tonight are the ones playing almost all the games."

Up Next for These Clubs?

Chelsea's next Champions League fixture sees them welcome the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, are at home to Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.