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Key Moments

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the interval and equalise through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker grabs a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea slide to eleventh place in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the knockouts.

The London club's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents fought back to win in Bergamo.

Each club entered this fixture with the same points tallies in the initial stage of this year's tournament, having secured three victories, drawn, and suffered one defeat to sit on 10 points.

For large parts there was little to distinguish them in this contest too, although Chelsea went ahead in the first half when Joao Pedro finished Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta remained a threat going on the attack, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman issues for the backline.

James shot wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the pressure and justly equalised when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but they secured the decisive strike in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence backed off the midfielder, who seized the opportunity with a driven shot.

Chelsea attempted to salvage a point late on but a excellent save by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to 11th with two league phase matches left to play.

Atalanta, in contrast, leap up to third, three points clear of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Sequence Persists

This was a extremely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them in a strong position to achieve the top-eight position they require to bypass the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lacked concentration in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italians are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging examination for the Blues, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after taking the early advantage.

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

Since defeating the Spanish giants 3-0 at the end of November they are now winless in their last four matches.

Excessive Changes Turning Out to Be Costly?

Manager Enzo Maresca enacted five changes for this game as he continued his strategy of moving players in and out of the starting lineup.

The changes here came after he implemented the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the draw with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

The coach will view squad rotation as essential as he attempts to handle players' fitness and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he stated the central contingent of players remains the same for key games.

"I believe in this match [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who played against Tottenham, FC Barcelona, and Arsenal," he said.

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

"The players who took to the field this evening are the individuals who feature in almost all the games."

What's Next for These Teams?

The Blues' next Champions League game sees them host the Cypriot side on Wednesday, 21 January (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.