diff --git a/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-reader.c b/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-reader.c
index a5f158a85..a86e61b9d 100644
--- a/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-reader.c
+++ b/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-reader.c
@@ -1427,13 +1427,12 @@ make_match_setting (shvarFile *ifcfg)
 	if (!v)
 		return NULL;
 
-	strv = nm_utils_strsplit_set_full (v, " \t", NM_UTILS_STRSPLIT_SET_FLAGS_ALLOW_ESCAPING);
+	strv = nm_utils_escaped_tokens_split (v, NM_ASCII_SPACES);
 	if (strv) {
 		for (i = 0; strv[i]; i++) {
 			if (!s_match)
 				s_match = (NMSettingMatch *) nm_setting_match_new ();
-			nm_setting_match_add_interface_name (s_match,
-			                                     _nm_utils_unescape_spaces ((char *) strv[i], TRUE));
+			nm_setting_match_add_interface_name (s_match, strv[i]);
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-writer.c b/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-writer.c
index a8be7cdec..2be986307 100644
--- a/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-writer.c
+++ b/src/settings/plugins/ifcfg-rh/nms-ifcfg-rh-writer.c
@@ -2375,15 +2375,17 @@ write_match_setting (NMConnection *connection, shvarFile *ifcfg, GError **error)
 
 	num = nm_setting_match_get_num_interface_names (s_match);
 	for (i = 0; i < num; i++) {
-		gs_free char *to_free = NULL;
 		const char *name;
 
-		if (i == 0)
+		name = nm_setting_match_get_interface_name (s_match, i);
+		if (!name || !name[0])
+			continue;
+
+		if (!str)
 			str = g_string_new ("");
 		else
 			g_string_append_c (str, ' ');
-		name = nm_setting_match_get_interface_name (s_match, i);
-		g_string_append (str, _nm_utils_escape_spaces (name, &to_free));
+		nm_utils_escaped_tokens_escape_gstr (name, NM_ASCII_SPACES, str);
 	}
 
 	if (str)