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At a Glance

• The Chelsea forward gives Chelsea the lead in the opening period.
• The Italian outfit the better side after the interval and draw level through the striker.
• Charles de Ketelaere grabs a last-gasp winner for the home side.
• The defeat means Chelsea slide to 11th in the league phase of the tournament.
• The top eight qualify automatically for the last 16.

The London club's chances of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockouts were hit hard as their Italian opponents overturned a deficit to claim victory in Bergamo.

Both sides entered this fixture with matching points tallies in the league phase of this season's competition, having secured three victories, drawn, and suffered one defeat to have accrued 10 points.

For extended periods there was very little to separate them in this contest too, even though Chelsea got their noses in front in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted the captain's cross.

But Atalanta always looked a danger going on the attack, with former Premier League attacker causing problems for the backline.

James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta increased the intensity and rightfully drew level when former West Ham United striker nodded home a centering pass.

Alejandro Garnacho hammered a strong effort straight at the keeper but they scored the winner late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from the midfielder, who made no mistake with a powerful finish.

The visitors attempted to rescue a draw in stoppage time but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper kept out Joao Pedro.

The outcome means Chelsea slip out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two group stage fixtures left to play.

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

Blues Breakdown - Concerning Sequence Persists

This was a extremely disappointing outcome for Chelsea as even a draw was leaving them well placed to secure the top-eight position they require to bypass the uncertainty of the play-offs.

But they lacked concentration in defence with seven minutes left on the clock and their opponents took full advantage.

The Italian side are in good 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 no points after taking the lead.

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

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

Too Many Rotations Turning Out to Be Costly?

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca enacted five rotations for this match as he persisted with his policy of rotating players in and out of the first team.

The rotations here came after he implemented the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds United and six for the draw with AFC Bournemouth prior to the trip to Atalanta.

Maresca will see squad rotation as necessary as he tries to handle players' minutes and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he insisted the key nucleus of players stays the same for crucial fixtures.

"I think in this match [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, Barcelona, and the Gunners," he commented.

"If you see the five changes that we did relative to Bournemouth it may be different but it is the eight or nine players playing Barcelona.

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

Up Next for These Teams?

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

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