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Key Moments

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams progress automatically for the last 16.

The London club's hopes of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were suffered a setback as Atalanta fought back to triumph in Bergamo.

Each club went into this match with matching points tallies in the league phase of this season's competition, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to have accrued 10 points.

For much of the game there was not much to separate them in this encounter too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted the captain's cross.

But Atalanta always looked a threat going forwards, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but the home team upped the pressure and rightfully drew level when ex-West Ham striker nodded home a centering pass.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the keeper but Atalanta scored the winner late on when the Chelsea defenders backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a low strike.

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

The outcome means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two league phase games left to play.

Atalanta, meanwhile, climb up to third place, three points clear of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Run Persists

This was a hugely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to secure the top eight finish they require to bypass the uncertainty of the play-offs.

But they lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta capitalised completely.

The Italians are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult test for the visitors, but they will be disappointed to be leaving with nothing after taking the lead.

But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's worrying streak of results in all competitions.

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

Excessive Changes Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this game as he continued his policy of rotating players in and out of the first team.

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

The coach will see squad rotation as vital as he tries to handle players' workloads and challenge both at domestically and in Europe, but he maintained the key nucleus of players remains the unchanged for important fixtures.

"I believe tonight [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona, and Arsenal," he said.

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

"The ones who took to the field tonight are the ones playing almost all the games."

What Next for These Teams?

The Blues' next Champions League fixture sees them welcome the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.