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At a Glance

• Joao Pedro gives Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the break and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker grabs a last-gasp winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to 11th in the group stage of the tournament.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the knockout phase.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were dealt a blow as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to claim victory in Bergamo.

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

For extended periods there was little to choose between them in this contest too, even though Chelsea went ahead in the first half when the Brazilian turned in Reece James' delivery.

But Atalanta consistently appeared a threat going forward, with former Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman issues for the backline.

James fired wide in the second half but the home team upped the intensity and justly levelled when former West Ham United striker nodded home a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a strong effort straight at the keeper but they secured the winning goal late on when the Blues defenders backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a driven shot.

The visitors tried to rescue a draw in stoppage time but a brilliant stop by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

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

Atalanta, in contrast, jump up to third, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Run Continues

This was a extremely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them in a strong position to achieve the top eight position they require to bypass the lottery of the play-offs.

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italians are in fine fettle at the moment so this was always going to be a tough test for the Blues, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with nothing after securing the lead.

But the wider issue is that this continues Chelsea's concerning sequence 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 matches.

Too Many Rotations Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca made five alterations for this game as he continued his strategy of moving players in and out of the starting 11.

The rotations here followed after he made the same number for the loss to Leeds and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the trip to Atalanta.

Maresca will view squad rotation as necessary as he tries to handle players' workloads and challenge both at home and abroad, but he insisted the core group of players remains the unchanged for crucial fixtures.

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

"If you see the five changes that we made relative to the previous game it is a change but it is the same eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The ones who played this evening are the ones playing almost all the matches."

What's Next for These Clubs?

Chelsea's next Champions League fixture sees them welcome Pafos on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).

The Italian team, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.