diff --git a/packages/core/src/render3/view_engine_compatibility.ts b/packages/core/src/render3/view_engine_compatibility.ts
index d3ad41abdb..a1228e0df4 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/render3/view_engine_compatibility.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/render3/view_engine_compatibility.ts
@@ -330,25 +330,28 @@ export function createContainerRef(
     let commentNode: RComment;
     // If the host is an element container, the native host element is guaranteed to be a
     // comment and we can reuse that comment as anchor element for the new LContainer.
+    // The comment node in question is already part of the DOM structure so we don't need to append
+    // it again.
     if (hostTNode.type === TNodeType.ElementContainer) {
       commentNode = unwrapRNode(slotValue) as RComment;
     } else {
       ngDevMode && ngDevMode.rendererCreateComment++;
       commentNode = hostView[RENDERER].createComment(ngDevMode ? 'container' : '');
-    }
 
-    // A container can be created on the root (topmost / bootstrapped) component and in this case we
-    // can't use LTree to insert container's marker node (both parent of a comment node and the
-    // commend node itself is located outside of elements hold by LTree). In this specific case we
-    // use low-level DOM manipulation to insert container's marker (comment) node.
-    if (isRootView(hostView)) {
-      const renderer = hostView[RENDERER];
-      const hostNative = getNativeByTNode(hostTNode, hostView) !;
-      const parentOfHostNative = nativeParentNode(renderer, hostNative);
-      nativeInsertBefore(
-          renderer, parentOfHostNative !, commentNode, nativeNextSibling(renderer, hostNative));
-    } else {
-      appendChild(commentNode, hostTNode, hostView);
+      // A `ViewContainerRef` can be injected by the root (topmost / bootstrapped) component. In
+      // this case we can't use TView / TNode data structures to insert container's marker node
+      // (both a parent of a comment node and the comment node itself are not part of any view). In
+      // this specific case we use low-level DOM manipulation to insert container's marker (comment)
+      // node.
+      if (isRootView(hostView)) {
+        const renderer = hostView[RENDERER];
+        const hostNative = getNativeByTNode(hostTNode, hostView) !;
+        const parentOfHostNative = nativeParentNode(renderer, hostNative);
+        nativeInsertBefore(
+            renderer, parentOfHostNative !, commentNode, nativeNextSibling(renderer, hostNative));
+      } else {
+        appendChild(commentNode, hostTNode, hostView);
+      }
     }
 
     hostView[hostTNode.index] = lContainer =
diff --git a/packages/core/test/acceptance/view_insertion_spec.ts b/packages/core/test/acceptance/view_insertion_spec.ts
index eed47660af..06f8c6fcbd 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/acceptance/view_insertion_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/acceptance/view_insertion_spec.ts
@@ -541,4 +541,42 @@ describe('view insertion', () => {
     });
   });
 
+  describe('non-regression', () => {
+
+    // https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/33679
+    it('should insert views into ViewContainerRef injected by querying <ng-container>', () => {
+
+      @Component({
+        selector: 'app-root',
+        template: `
+        <div>container start|</div>
+        <ng-container #container></ng-container>
+        <div>|container end</div>
+
+        <ng-template #template >test</ng-template>
+        <div (click)="click()" >|click</div>
+        `
+      })
+      class AppComponent {
+        @ViewChild('container', {read: ViewContainerRef, static: true})
+        vcr !: ViewContainerRef;
+
+        @ViewChild('template', {read: TemplateRef, static: true}) template !: TemplateRef<any>;
+
+        click() { this.vcr.createEmbeddedView(this.template, undefined, 0); }
+      }
+
+      TestBed.configureTestingModule({
+        declarations: [AppComponent],
+      });
+      const fixture = TestBed.createComponent(AppComponent);
+      fixture.detectChanges();
+      expect(fixture.nativeElement.textContent).toBe('container start||container end|click');
+
+      fixture.componentInstance.click();
+      fixture.detectChanges();
+      expect(fixture.nativeElement.textContent).toBe('container start|test|container end|click');
+    });
+
+  });
 });