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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and draw level through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker grabs a late winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the league phase 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 knockout stages were hit hard as their Italian opponents came from behind to win in Bergamo.

The two teams went into this match with the same points tallies in the initial stage of this year's competition, having won, tied one, and lost to be on 10 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 opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted the captain's delivery.

But The Serie A side always looked a threat going forward, with former Charlton and Everton attacker creating problems for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but the home team increased the intensity and justly equalised when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger hammered a powerful shot straight at the keeper but they secured the winning goal in the closing stages when the Blues defence retreated from Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a powerful shot.

Chelsea tried to rescue a draw late on but a brilliant save by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two league phase games remaining.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, climb up to third, three points clear of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Run Persists

This was a deeply 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 lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and their opponents seized the moment.

The Italian side are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging examination for the visitors, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after taking the lead.

But the broader context is that this continues Chelsea's worrying sequence of form in all tournaments.

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

Too Many Changes Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five changes for this match as he persisted with his strategy 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 United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

Maresca will view squad rotation as essential as he tries to handle players' workloads and compete both at home and in Europe, but he stated the central contingent of players stays the same for important games.

"I believe tonight [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, Barcelona, and the Gunners," he said.

"If you see the five alterations that we made relative to the previous game it is a change but it involves the same eight or nine players who played Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Sides?

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

The Italian team, on the other hand, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the same time.