diff --git a/src/Codeception/Lib/InnerBrowser.php b/src/Codeception/Lib/InnerBrowser.php
index 71e008b..26a7abd 100644
--- a/src/Codeception/Lib/InnerBrowser.php
+++ b/src/Codeception/Lib/InnerBrowser.php
@@ -1241,7 +1241,7 @@ protected function matchOption(Crawler $field, string|array $option)
             $option = $option['text'];
         }
 
-        $options = $field->filterXPath(sprintf('//option[text()=normalize-space("%s")]|//input[@type="radio" and @value=normalize-space("%s")]', $option, $option));
+        $options = $field->filterXPath(sprintf('//option[normalize-space(text())=normalize-space("%s")]|//input[@type="radio" and @value=normalize-space("%s")]', $option, $option));
         if ($options->count() !== 0) {
             $firstMatchingDomNode = $options->getNode(0);
             if ($firstMatchingDomNode->tagName === 'option') {