Chelsea's Qualification Hopes Dealt a Blow by Loss at Atalanta

Key Moments

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the break and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere nets a late decisive goal for the hosts.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to 11th in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the knockout phase.

Chelsea's hopes of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were hit hard as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to claim victory in their home stadium.

Each club entered this fixture with identical points tallies in the league phase of this year's competition, having won, tied one, and suffered one defeat to have accrued ten points.

For extended periods there was very little to separate them in this contest too, although Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian turned in the captain's cross.

But The Serie A side consistently appeared a danger going forward, with former Premier League attacker Ademola Lookman issues for the defence.

James fired wide in the after the break but the home team increased the intensity and justly equalised when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta secured the decisive strike in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who took full advantage with a driven finish.

The visitors attempted to salvage a point late on but a superb stop by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

The result means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two league phase fixtures left to play.

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

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Form Continues

This was a deeply frustrating result for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them in a strong position to achieve the top-eight position they require to avoid the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lost focus 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 test for the visitors, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with nothing after securing the lead.

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

Since beating the Spanish giants 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 Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this game as he continued his policy of moving players in and out of the first team.

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

The coach will view rotation as vital as he attempts to manage players' fitness and compete both at home and in Europe, but he insisted the key nucleus of players remains the same for important games.

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

"If you see the five alterations that we made compared to the previous game it is different but it is the same eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The ones who played this evening are the individuals who feature in almost all the matches."

What Next for These Teams?

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

Atalanta, on the other hand, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.