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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the break and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker scores a late decisive goal for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams progress automatically for the knockouts.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were hit hard as their Italian opponents fought back to triumph in Bergamo.

Both sides went into this match with identical points tallies in the league phase of this season's competition, having won, tied one, and lost to have accrued ten points.

For much of the game there was not much to choose between them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when the Brazilian converted Reece James' delivery.

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

Reece James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta raised the pressure and justly drew level when ex-West Ham striker headed in a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they scored the decisive strike in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

Chelsea attempted to rescue a point late on but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two league phase matches left to play.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, climb up to third, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Sequence Continues

This was a hugely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to achieve the top-eight finish they need to avoid the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lacked concentration in their defensive duties with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta took full advantage.

The Italians are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult examination for the visitors, but they will be disappointed to be leaving with no points after taking the lead.

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

Since beating Barcelona 3-0 at the close of November they are now without a win in their last four outings.

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five alterations for this game as he persisted with his run of moving players in and out of the starting 11.

The rotations here came after he made the identical amount for the loss to Leeds and six for the draw with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

Maresca will view rotation as essential as he attempts to handle players' fitness and compete both at domestically and in Europe, but he stated the core group of players stays the same for key fixtures.

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

"If you look at the five alterations that we made relative to Bournemouth it is a change but it is the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Clubs?

Chelsea's next European game sees them welcome Pafos on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, host Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.