Goals from Ho Tan Tai and Nguyen Thien Linh put Vietnam 2-0 up within 16 minutes, before Phan Van Duc made sure of the three points 14 minutes from the end of regulation time.

Xu Xin grabbed a consolation goal for the visitors in the seventh minute of added time, but fifth-placed China will now be playing for pride in their final two Group B games against Saudi Arabia and Oman, with the top three qualification spots out of reach.

The national team’s defeat to Vietnam quickly become the top trending hashtag on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, racking up more than 1.28 million mentions within two hours of the game ending.

Many netizens criticised the “embarrassing” and “humiliating” result.

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“Such a score, and such a defeat to miss the World Cup is absolutely unacceptable to every Chinese fan,” wrote one Weibo user. “What have we experienced in the past 20 years? How will we live in the next 20 years?”

Others were seemingly resigned to defeat before the match even kicked off. “To tell the truth,” one comment read, “this result is normal”.

“The players’ desire to survive is not enough, and they are still immersed in the atmosphere of the Lunar New Year,” the user continued. “The team itself has no strength.”

New manager Li Xiaopeng had also suffered defeat in his first match in charge, a 2-0 loss to Japan in Saitama last week.

Tuesday’s result made it five losses from eight matches in the third phase of Asian qualifying, with just one win and eight goals scored.

“As for Li Xiaopeng, he also knows why he is here,” another user wrote on Weibo. “Tactics are not really important. Players are bad, coaches are bad, it doesn’t matter, hurry up and go home for the New Year. One more thing, Li Xiaopeng’s strength was [being] able to take Luneng [Shandong Taishan FC] to the runner-up [spot in the Chinese Super League].”

Manager Li played in midfield the first and only time China have appeared at a World Cup, at the 2002 edition in Japan and South Korea.

One Weibo user noted they had been “deeply impressed” by China’s performances two decades ago. “Although I also shouted and cheered at the time, I thought in my heart that it was an accident,” they added. “It’s been 20 years, how come there are still so many people looking forward to [qualifying again]?”

“Can we still see the national football team enter the World Cup in our lifetime? Can we make it to the top 12 [in Asian qualifying] next year?” another user wrote. “Shame, shame, I really don’t want to face [it].”

“There are a lot of reasons for each loss, but I don’t see a good direction,” another person said.

Several users called for the team to be disbanded altogether, given their abject display against Vietnam.

“The men of the national football team have already lost their blood and backbone, or they should be dissolved. Losing to Vietnam, they are really shameless,” wrote one.

“The fireworks and firecrackers outside the house [for Lunar New Year] are not as loud as the national football loss,” another said.

“Don’t go back to China, stay there,” another comment read, suggesting the team not “waste domestic resources” by returning to isolate.

One user suggested the Chinese Football Association “break everything and start from scratch”, but other netizens were more philosophical in their assessment of the national team’s woes.

“There is the saying, ‘Can’t pick 11 out of 1.4 billion people?’ Yes, they really can’t pick them out. Because it is not among 1.4 billion people, but among thousands of people,” one user said.

“There are only a few thousand registered professional football players in China (remember it is between 2000-4000), but you can check the registered population of professional football in Germany, the UK, and those countries whose population is a few tenths of ours. It is several times or ten times ours.”