🔗 Share this article

Match Summary

• The Chelsea forward hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the break and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a late decisive goal for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the last 16.

The London club's chances of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockouts were dealt a blow as Atalanta fought back to triumph in their home stadium.

The two teams entered this fixture with identical points tallies in the initial stage of this season's competition, having won, tied one, and lost to sit on ten points.

For large parts there was little to distinguish them in this contest too, although Chelsea got their noses in front in the first half when Joao Pedro turned in Reece James' cross.

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

Reece James fired wide in the second half but the home team raised the pressure and rightfully levelled when ex-West Ham striker headed in a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the winner in the closing stages when the Blues defence backed off the midfielder, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

The visitors tried to salvage a draw late on but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Joao Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two group stage fixtures left to play.

The Bergamo club, in contrast, jump up to third, three points clear of the Blues.

Blues Breakdown - Worrying Sequence Continues

This was a hugely frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to achieve the top eight position they require to bypass the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

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 challenging test for the Blues, but they will be disappointed to be departing with nothing after taking the early advantage.

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

Since defeating the Spanish giants 3-0 at the close of November they are now without a win in their last four games.

Excessive Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca made five alterations for this game as he persisted with his strategy of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

The rotations here followed after he made the same number for the defeat to Leeds and six for the tie with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

Maresca will view rotation as vital as he tries to manage players' minutes and challenge both at domestically and in Europe, but he maintained the central contingent of players remains the unchanged for important games.

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

"If you look at the five alterations that we did relative to the previous game it may be a change but it involves the same eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Teams?

Chelsea's next Champions League game sees them host Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (20:00 GMT).

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