Chelsea's Qualification Hopes Hit by Loss at Atalanta
Match Summary
- Joao Pedro hands Chelsea the lead in the first half.
- Atalanta the stronger side after the break and draw level through the striker.
- Charles de Ketelaere grabs a late winner for the home side.
- Loss means Chelsea drop to eleventh place in the group stage of the Champions League.
- The top eight qualify automatically for the last 16.
Chelsea's ambitions of securing a place automatically for the Champions League knockouts were dealt a blow as Atalanta fought back to claim victory in Bergamo.
Both sides went into this fixture with matching records in the initial stage of this year's competition, having secured three victories, tied one, and suffered one defeat to sit on ten points.
For large parts there was very little to distinguish them in this encounter too, even though Chelsea took the lead in the opening 45 minutes when the Brazilian converted Reece James' delivery.
But Atalanta consistently appeared a danger going on the attack, with former Premier League attacker causing problems for the defence.
James fired wide in the second half but Atalanta upped the intensity and rightfully equalised when ex-West Ham striker headed in a cross.
The winger hammered a strong effort straight at the goalkeeper but Atalanta scored the winner late on when the Chelsea defence retreated from Charles de Ketelaere, who made no mistake with a driven finish.
The visitors attempted to rescue a point late on but a brilliant stop by the Atalanta goalkeeper denied Pedro.
The final score means Chelsea fall out of the top eight—the spots that qualify automatically for the knockouts—to 11th with two league phase matches left to play.
Atalanta, in contrast, climb up to third place, three points clear of the Londoners.
Blues Breakdown - Worrying Form Persists
This was a hugely disappointing result for Chelsea as even a point was keeping them in a strong position to achieve the top-eight position they require to bypass the lottery of the play-offs.
But they let their concentration slip in their defensive duties with seven minutes left on the clock and Atalanta took full advantage.
The Italian side are in good form at the moment so this was always going to be a challenging test for the Blues, but they will be frustrated to be departing with no points after taking the early advantage.
But the broader context is that this perpetuates Chelsea's worrying streak of results in all competitions.
Since defeating Barcelona 3-0 at the end of November they are now winless in their last four matches.
Too Many Rotations Proving Expensive?
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca made five rotations for this game as he persisted with his run of moving players in and out of the starting 11.
The changes here followed after he made the identical amount for the defeat to Leeds and six for the tie with AFC Bournemouth prior to the journey to Bergamo.
The coach will see squad rotation as essential as he attempts to manage players' minutes and compete both at domestically and abroad, but he insisted the central contingent of players remains the unchanged for crucial games.
"I believe in this match [in] the starting lineup we had eight or nine players who featured against Tottenham, Barcelona, and Arsenal," he said.
"If you see the five alterations that we made relative to the previous game it is a change but it is the eight or nine players who played Barcelona.
"The players who played tonight are the ones playing almost all the games."
What Next for These Clubs?
The Blues' next European fixture sees them host Pafos on the coming Wednesday (20:00 GMT).
Atalanta, on the other hand, host Athletic Club at the identical kick-off time.