The Blues' Hopes Suffer a Setback by Reverse at Atalanta

Match Summary

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the break and equalise through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp decisive goal for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea fall to 11th in the group stage of the tournament.
• The top eight progress automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockouts were suffered a setback as their Italian opponents came from behind to win in Bergamo.

The two teams went into this fixture with the same points tallies in the league phase of this season's tournament, having won, drawn, and lost to sit on 10 points.

For extended periods there was little to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when Joao Pedro converted Reece James' cross.

But Atalanta remained a danger going forward, with former Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the backline.

Reece James shot wide in the after the break but Atalanta increased the pressure and rightfully drew level when former West Ham United striker headed in a cross.

The winger drove a powerful shot straight at the goalkeeper but they secured the winning goal in the closing stages when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who took full advantage with a powerful strike.

Chelsea attempted to salvage a point late on but a excellent save by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

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

Atalanta, meanwhile, jump up to third, three points ahead of the Blues.

Chelsea Analysis - Worrying Run Continues

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

But they lost focus in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italian side are in fine fettle 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 nothing after securing the lead.

But the wider issue is that this extends Chelsea's worrying streak of results in all competitions.

Since defeating Barcelona 3-0 at the end of November they are now without a win in their last four matches.

Excessive Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Maresca enacted five alterations for this match as he persisted with his run of moving players in and out of the starting lineup.

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

Maresca will see rotation as necessary as he tries to handle players' fitness and challenge both at domestically and in Europe, but he insisted the core group of players remains the unchanged for important games.

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

"If you look at the five changes that we made relative to Bournemouth it is different but it is the same eight or nine players who played Barcelona.

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

What Next for These Teams?

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

Atalanta, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Club at the same time.