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Key Moments

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and draw level through Gianluca Scamacca.
• The Belgian attacker nets a late decisive goal for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea drop to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockouts.

Chelsea's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were hit hard as Atalanta overturned a deficit to win in their home stadium.

The two teams went into this fixture with matching 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 choose between them in this contest too, although Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted Reece James' delivery.

But The Serie A side always looked a threat going forwards, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman issues for the defence.

Reece James fired wide in the second half but the home team upped the pressure and justly levelled when ex-West Ham striker nodded home a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the decisive strike in the closing stages when the Chelsea defenders retreated from the midfielder, who seized the opportunity with a powerful shot.

Chelsea attempted to salvage a draw late on but a brilliant save by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea drop out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that progress automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two league phase fixtures remaining.

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

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Run Continues

This was a extremely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them in a strong position to secure the top-eight position they need to bypass the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta seized the moment.

The Italian side are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult test for the visitors, but they will be annoyed to be leaving with nothing after securing the early advantage.

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

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

Too Many Changes Proving Expensive?

Manager Enzo Maresca enacted five changes for this match as he continued his policy of moving players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here followed after he made the identical amount for the loss to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

The coach will see squad rotation as necessary as he tries to manage players' workloads and compete both at domestically and in Europe, but he maintained the key nucleus of players remains the unchanged for key fixtures.

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

"If you look at the five alterations that we did compared to Bournemouth it is different but it involves the same eight or nine players playing in that match.

"The ones who took to the field this evening are the individuals playing almost all the games."

What Next for These Clubs?

The Blues' next Champions League game sees them host the Cypriot side on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, host Athletic Bilbao at the same time.