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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 draw level through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker scores a last-gasp decisive goal for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the Champions League.
• The top eight progress automatically for the knockouts.

The London club's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were suffered a setback as Atalanta overturned a deficit to claim victory in their home stadium.

Each club entered this match with matching points tallies in the league phase of this season's tournament, having secured three victories, drawn, and lost to be on 10 points.

For large parts there was very little to choose between them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro finished Reece James' delivery.

But The Serie A side consistently appeared a danger going forwards, with former Charlton and Everton attacker causing issues for the backline.

Reece James fired wide in the after the break but Atalanta raised the pressure and justly drew level when former West Ham United striker nodded home a cross.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the keeper but they secured the winning goal in the closing stages when the Blues defence backed off the midfielder, who took full advantage with a powerful strike.

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

The result means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the positions that progress automatically for the knockouts—to eleventh with two group stage games left to play.

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

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Sequence Persists

This was a deeply frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them in a strong position to achieve the top eight position they need to bypass the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lost focus in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and Atalanta seized the moment.

The Italians are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging test for the Blues, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with no points after taking the early advantage.

But the wider issue is that this continues Chelsea's troubling run of form in all competitions.

Since defeating the Spanish giants 3-0 at the end of November they are now winless in their last four matches.

Too Many Rotations Proving Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca made five changes for this match as he continued his run of rotating players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here followed after he implemented the same number for the loss to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the trip to Atalanta.

The coach will view rotation as necessary as he tries to handle players' minutes and challenge both at home and abroad, but he insisted the key nucleus of players stays the same for key games.

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

"If you look at the five alterations that we made compared to Bournemouth it is a change but it involves the same eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

"The players who took to the field tonight are the individuals who feature in almost all the games."

Up Next for These Sides?

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

The Italian team, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.