China have been held to a stale 1-1 home draw by 99th-ranked Palestine in a friendly in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, on Tuesday.
The draw is the third in four games for World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, who will take the team to the finals of the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates in January.
The Italian has been in charge of the Chinese team since November 2016 but is widely expected to stand down after the Asian Cup.
Marcello Lippi, head coach of China, gestures during a friendly between China and Palestine in Haikou, November 20, 2018. /VCG Photo
Feng Xiaoting put the Chinese national team, 75th in the FIFA rankings, in front after just nine minutes when he looped his header over Palestine goalkeeper Rami Hamadeh and into the far side of the goal.
Shanghai SIPG's Wu Lei – top scorer in the recently completed Chinese Super League – almost added a second five minutes before the break, only for Hamadeh to tip the striker's header over the bar.
Palestine pulled level two minutes after the hour mark when Abdallatif Al Bahdari's perfectly weighted pass split the Chinese defense to allow Alexis Norambuena to slot past Yan Junling.
With less than 50 days until the Asian Cup in the UAE, China's failure to defeat the Palestinians will trigger another spasm of soul-searching about the perennially underachieving national side.