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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the advantage in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the break and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp winner for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea slide to eleventh place in the group stage of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the last 16.

The London club's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were hit hard as their Italian opponents came from behind to win in their home stadium.

Each club went into this game with matching records in the initial stage of this season's competition, having won, tied one, and lost to have accrued ten points.

For much of the game there was very little to choose between them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian finished Reece James' delivery.

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

James fired wide in the after the break but the home team raised the pressure and deservedly equalised when former West Ham United striker headed in a centering pass.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the keeper but they secured the winner in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who seized the opportunity with a driven strike.

The visitors tried to salvage a point late on but a excellent save by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the positions that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two group stage matches remaining.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, leap up to third place, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Form Persists

This was a extremely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them well placed to secure the top eight position they require to avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lacked concentration in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta seized the moment.

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

But the bigger picture is that this extends Chelsea's worrying run of form in all competitions.

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

Excessive Changes Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five changes for this game as he persisted with his strategy of rotating players in and out of the starting lineup.

The changes here came after he made the same number for the loss to Leeds United and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

The coach will see squad rotation as necessary as he attempts to handle players' fitness and challenge both at home and in Europe, but he insisted the core group of players stays the same for crucial games.

"I think tonight [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham Hotspur, FC Barcelona, and Arsenal," he said.

"If you see the five changes 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 played tonight are the ones playing almost all the matches."

What Next for These Teams?

Chelsea's next European fixture sees them welcome the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

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