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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and equalise through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker nets a last-gasp winner for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockout phase.

Chelsea's chances of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to win in their home stadium.

Both sides entered this match with the same records in the initial stage of this year's competition, having won, drawn, and suffered one defeat to sit on ten points.

For much of the game there was little to choose between them in this contest too, although Chelsea went ahead in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro turned in Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta always looked a danger going forwards, with former Premier League attacker creating issues for the backline.

James shot wide in the after the break but the home team increased the intensity and rightfully drew level when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they secured the winning goal late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

The visitors tried to salvage a draw in stoppage time but a superb save by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two league phase matches remaining.

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

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Sequence Continues

This was a hugely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them in a strong position to secure the top-eight position 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 took full advantage.

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

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

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

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five rotations for this game as he continued his policy of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

The rotations here came after he implemented the same number 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 necessary as he tries to manage players' fitness and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he insisted the central contingent of players stays the same for important fixtures.

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

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

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

What's Next for These Clubs?

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

The Italian team, on the other hand, host Athletic Club at the same time.