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Match Summary

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• Atalanta the better side after the break and equalise through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker scores a last-gasp winner for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea fall to eleventh place in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's ambitions of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to claim victory in Bergamo.

Both sides entered this game with the same records in the initial stage of this season's tournament, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to have accrued 10 points.

For extended periods there was very little to separate them in this contest too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro finished Reece James' cross.

But Atalanta consistently appeared a threat going forward, with former Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the defence.

James shot wide in the second half but the home team upped the intensity and rightfully drew level when former West Ham United striker nodded home a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the winner late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who took full advantage with a driven finish.

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

The result means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage matches remaining.

Atalanta, in contrast, leap up to third place, three points ahead of the Blues.

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Run Continues

This was a deeply frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them in a strong position to secure the top-eight finish they need to avoid the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes remaining 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 Blues, but they will be annoyed to be departing with no points after securing the early advantage.

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

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

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Expensive?

Manager Enzo Maresca made five alterations for this match as he continued his run of rotating players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here followed after he made the same number for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the tie with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

Maresca will view squad rotation as essential as he tries to handle players' workloads and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he maintained the core group of players stays the unchanged for crucial fixtures.

"I think in this match [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, Barcelona, and Arsenal," he stated.

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

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

What Next for These Sides?

The Blues' next European fixture sees them host Pafos on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, on the other hand, host Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.