diff --git a/CMake/Macros.cmake b/CMake/Macros.cmake
index f0968736b0..953c1c6ee6 100644
--- a/CMake/Macros.cmake
+++ b/CMake/Macros.cmake
@@ -267,10 +267,8 @@ macro(curl_collect_target_link_options _target)
   get_target_property(_val ${_target} INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES)
   if(_val)
     foreach(_lib IN LISTS _val)
-      # E.g. via libssh2: "$<LINK_ONLY:OpenSSL::Crypto>"
-      if(_lib MATCHES "LINK_ONLY:")
-        string(REGEX MATCH "([A-Za-z0-9_-]+::[A-Za-z0-9_-]+)" _lib "${_lib}")  # Extract imported target name
-      endif()
+      # Extract imported target name from e.g. "$<LINK_ONLY:OpenSSL::Crypto>" set by libssh2
+      string(REGEX REPLACE "^\\\$<LINK_ONLY:(.*)>\$" "\\1" _lib "${_lib}")
       if(TARGET "${_lib}")
         curl_collect_target_link_options(${_lib})
       else()