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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a last-gasp decisive goal for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea slide to eleventh place in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's chances of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockouts were suffered a setback as Atalanta overturned a deficit to win in Bergamo.

Each club entered this fixture with identical records in the league phase of this year's competition, having secured three victories, drawn, and suffered one defeat to be on 10 points.

For large parts there was very little to choose between them in this contest too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the first half when the Brazilian turned in the captain's cross.

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

James shot wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the intensity and deservedly levelled when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta scored the decisive strike late on when the Blues defence retreated from the midfielder, who seized the opportunity with a powerful shot.

Chelsea attempted to rescue a draw in stoppage time but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage fixtures remaining.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, leap up to third, three points clear of the Blues.

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Sequence Persists

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

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italians are in rich vein of 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 early advantage.

But the wider issue is that this extends Chelsea's concerning streak of form in all competitions.

Since defeating the Spanish giants 3-0 at the end of November they are now without a win in their last four outings.

Excessive Rotations Turning Out to Be Expensive?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five rotations for this match 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 journey to Atalanta.

The coach will view rotation as vital as he attempts to handle players' workloads and compete both at domestically and in Europe, but he stated the core group of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.

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

"If you see the five alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth it may be a change but it is the eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The ones who played tonight are the individuals playing almost all the games."

Up Next for These Clubs?

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

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