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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the advantage in the first half.
• Atalanta the stronger side after the break and draw level through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a late decisive goal for the home side.
• Loss means Chelsea slide to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's hopes of qualifying automatically for the Champions League knockout stages were suffered a setback as Atalanta overturned a deficit to win in their home stadium.

Both sides went into this match with the same points tallies in the league phase of this year's tournament, having won, tied one, and suffered one defeat to be on 10 points.

For extended periods there was very little to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the first half when Joao Pedro converted Reece James' cross.

But The Serie A side remained a threat going on the attack, with ex- Charlton and Everton attacker creating problems for the defence.

James shot wide in the after the break but the home team increased the intensity and rightfully equalised when ex-West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca a centering pass.

The winger drove a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but they got the decisive strike late on when the Blues defence retreated from the midfielder, who made no mistake with a driven finish.

The visitors tried to rescue a point late on but a brilliant save by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the positions that qualify automatically for the next round—to 11th with two league phase fixtures remaining.

Atalanta, meanwhile, climb up to third place, three points clear of the Londoners.

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Sequence Continues

This was a deeply frustrating outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was keeping them well placed to secure the top-eight position they require to avoid the uncertainty of the play-offs.

But they lacked concentration in their defensive duties with seven minutes left on the clock and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italians are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult examination for the visitors, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after taking the early advantage.

But the bigger picture is that this continues Chelsea's troubling sequence of form in all tournaments.

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

Excessive Changes Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this match as he continued his run of moving players in and out of the starting 11.

The changes here followed after he implemented the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds and six for the tie with Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.

The coach will view squad rotation as essential as he tries to manage players' workloads and challenge both at domestically and abroad, but he maintained the core group of players stays the same for important fixtures.

"I think tonight [in] the first XI we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham Hotspur, FC Barcelona, and the Gunners," he stated.

"If you look at the five alterations that we did compared to the previous game it may be different but it is the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Sides?

Chelsea's next Champions League game sees them host Pafos on the coming Wednesday (8pm GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, host Athletic Club at the same time.