diff --git a/contrib/teamcity/install_openjdk8.sh b/contrib/teamcity/install_openjdk8.sh
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/teamcity/install_openjdk8.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+
+ADOPTOPENJDK_APT_REPOSITORY=https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/deb
+ADOPTOPENJDK8_DEB_FILE=adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot_8u252-b09-2_amd64.deb
+
+ADOPTOPENJDK8_DEPENDENCIES=(
+  java-common
+  libasound2
+  libc6
+  libx11-6
+  libxext6
+  libxi6
+  libxrender1
+  libxtst6
+  zlib1g
+)
+
+function join_by() {
+  local IFS="$1"
+  shift
+  echo "$*"
+}
+
+# First install the known dependencies
+apt-get update
+DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y $(join_by ' ' "${ADOPTOPENJDK8_DEPENDENCIES[@]}")
+
+apt-key add "$(dirname $0)/adoptopenjdk.pub"
+
+{
+  # Try to install from the repo
+  add-apt-repository --yes "${ADOPTOPENJDK_APT_REPOSITORY}" &&
+  apt-get update &&
+  DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot
+} || {
+  # Fallback in case of failure:
+  #  - Remove the faulty repo, make sure we can update the packages
+  #  - Download the deb package and install it using dpkg
+  add-apt-repository -r "${ADOPTOPENJDK_APT_REPOSITORY}" &&
+  apt-get update &&
+  wget "${ADOPTOPENJDK_APT_REPOSITORY}/pool/main/a/adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot/${ADOPTOPENJDK8_DEB_FILE}" &&
+  dpkg -i "${ADOPTOPENJDK8_DEB_FILE}"
+} || {
+  # Nothing worked, give up
+  echo "Unable to install adoptopenjdk8, giving up"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot-amd64 /usr/lib/jvm/default-java
+echo 'JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java"' >> /etc/environment
diff --git a/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh b/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
--- a/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
+++ b/contrib/teamcity/setup-debian-buster.sh
@@ -79,14 +79,9 @@
 
 TEAMCITY_DIR=$(dirname "$0")
 
-# Add the AdoptOpenJDK repo
-apt-key add "${TEAMCITY_DIR}"/adoptopenjdk.pub
-add-apt-repository --yes https://adoptopenjdk.jfrog.io/adoptopenjdk/deb/
-apt-get update
-DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot
-
-ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/adoptopenjdk-8-hotspot-amd64 /usr/lib/jvm/default-java
-echo 'JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java"' >> /etc/environment
+# FIXME this should no longer be needed starting with Teamcity 2020.1, which
+# supports Java 11.
+"${TEAMCITY_DIR}/install_openjdk8.sh"
 
 # Install llvm-8 and clang-10
 apt-key add "${TEAMCITY_DIR}"/llvm.pub