COUNTIFS cell reference problem

Hi,

Ive recently been learning about using COUNTIFS. This is working fine when using Text or a number as the thing i am searching for. However, when I type a cell reference I am having some problems.

For example-

=COUNTIFS(FIXTURES!I2:I616,"*TeamB*", FIXTURES!B2:B616, "*League*", FIXTURES!J2:J616,"*Ekeberg1*")

This works as I would hope. However, instead of typing TeamB or Ekeberg1 as above i would prefer to use a cell reference. This relates to sporting fixtures, when i try a cell reference for a column that contains single values such as "Home Team" it works no problem-

=COUNTIF(FIXTURES!G2:G616,"="&D15)

However, the column that I really want to search contains more than one value.. This contains something along the lines of "TeamA vs Team B". So i want to make a count of all cells that contain TeamB. Ive had no problem searching for that value in my first Example where it is explicitly typed. However, when i want to replace it with a cell reference it doesnt work. My search found some different sytax that i should use, ie-

=COUNTIF(FIXTURES!I2:I616,"="&"*D15*")

So instead of - "="&D15 Ive now got - "="&"*"D15"*" . However, this doesnt work for me either. I understand Ive probably got the syntax wrong in trying to use the wildcard.

Any advice on what I should change in this syntax?

Regards,
Damon

You had the right idea there at the end, but not quite right..

Try

FIXTURES!I2:I616,"*"&D15&"*"

Thanks Jonmo1, that works!

Appreciated.

You're welcome.