The Blues' Hopes Hit by Reverse at Bergamo

At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• Atalanta the better side after the interval and equalise through Gianluca Scamacca.
• Charles de Ketelaere scores a late winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the group stage of the tournament.
• The leading eight teams progress automatically for the last 16.

Chelsea's chances of qualifying automatically for the European Cup knockout stages were suffered a setback as Atalanta fought back to win in Bergamo.

The two teams entered this fixture with matching records in the initial stage of this year's tournament, having won, tied one, and suffered one defeat to be on ten points.

For extended periods there was very little to separate them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian finished the captain's cross.

But The Serie A side consistently appeared a threat going forwards, with former Charlton and Everton attacker Ademola Lookman problems for the defence.

James shot wide in the second half but Atalanta increased the pressure and justly drew level when former West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca a cross.

Alejandro Garnacho drove a strong effort straight at the keeper but Atalanta got the winning goal in the closing stages when the Blues defenders retreated from Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a powerful shot.

The visitors attempted to rescue a draw late on but a superb save by Marco Carnesecchi kept out Pedro.

The final score means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the positions that qualify automatically for the next round—to 11th with two league phase fixtures left to play.

The Bergamo club, meanwhile, jump up to third place, three points ahead of the Londoners.

Chelsea Analysis - Concerning Sequence Continues

This was a deeply disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a point was leaving them well placed to achieve the top-eight finish they need to avoid the uncertainty of the qualifying play-off round.

But they lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes remaining and their opponents capitalised completely.

The Italian side are in rich vein of form at the moment so this was always going to be a difficult 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 continues Chelsea's concerning run of results in all competitions.

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

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Expensive?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five alterations for this match as he persisted with his run of rotating players in and out of the starting 11.

The changes here came after he implemented the identical amount for the loss to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Atalanta.

Maresca will see squad rotation as vital as he tries to manage players' workloads and compete both at home and in Europe, but he maintained the core group of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.

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

"If you see the five alterations that we did relative to the previous game it may be different but it involves the same eight or nine players who played Barcelona.

"The players who played tonight are the ones playing almost all the games."

What Next for These Teams?

Chelsea's next European game sees them host Pafos on Wednesday, 21 January (8pm GMT).

The Italian team, on the other hand, host Athletic Bilbao at the identical kick-off time.