Chelsea's Hopes Dealt a Blow by Loss at Atalanta

At a Glance

• Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the stronger side after the interval and equalise through the striker.
• The Belgian attacker nets a late decisive goal for the hosts.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the group stage of the Champions League.
• The leading eight teams qualify automatically for the knockouts.

Chelsea's chances of securing a place automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were hit hard as their Italian opponents came from behind to triumph in their home stadium.

Both sides went into this game with the same points tallies in the initial stage of this year's tournament, having secured three victories, drawn, and lost to have accrued ten points.

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

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

James fired wide in the after the break but the home team upped the intensity and justly levelled when ex-West Ham striker headed in a cross.

The winger hammered a powerful shot straight at the keeper but Atalanta secured the winning goal late on when the Chelsea defenders backed off Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a powerful strike.

Chelsea attempted to rescue a point in stoppage time but a superb save by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Joao Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the automatic qualification places—the spots that progress automatically for the next round—to eleventh with two group stage matches left to play.

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

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Sequence Continues

This was a extremely frustrating result for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them in a strong position to secure the top-eight position they require to avoid the lottery of the qualifying play-off round.

But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes remaining and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italians 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 departing with nothing after securing the early advantage.

But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's troubling streak of form in all tournaments.

Since beating Barcelona 3-0 at the close of November they are now winless in their last four matches.

Excessive Rotations Proving Expensive?

Chelsea boss Maresca made five rotations for this game as he persisted with his strategy 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 draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the trip to Bergamo.

Maresca will view squad rotation as necessary as he tries to manage players' workloads and compete both at domestically and in Europe, but he insisted the key nucleus of players stays the same for important games.

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

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

"The ones who played this evening are the individuals playing almost all the games."

Up Next for These Sides?

The Blues' next European game sees them host Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (20:00 GMT).

Atalanta, meanwhile, are at home to Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.