diff --git a/pkg/apis/nfd/nodefeaturerule/rule.go b/pkg/apis/nfd/nodefeaturerule/rule.go
index 98629497a..9289eaa12 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/nfd/nodefeaturerule/rule.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/nfd/nodefeaturerule/rule.go
@@ -268,10 +268,11 @@ func evaluateFeatureMatcher(m *nfdv1alpha1.FeatureMatcher, features *nfdv1alpha1
 		fA, okA := features.Attributes[featureName]
 		fI, okI := features.Instances[featureName]
 		if !okF && !okA && !okI {
+			klog.V(2).InfoS("feature not available", "featureName", featureName)
 			if failFast {
-				klog.V(2).InfoS("feature not available", "featureName", featureName)
 				return false, nil, nil
 			}
+			isMatch = false
 			continue
 		}
 
diff --git a/pkg/client-nfd/compat/node-validator/node-validator_test.go b/pkg/client-nfd/compat/node-validator/node-validator_test.go
index 6977578a9..c0cbdaf5c 100644
--- a/pkg/client-nfd/compat/node-validator/node-validator_test.go
+++ b/pkg/client-nfd/compat/node-validator/node-validator_test.go
@@ -114,6 +114,17 @@ func TestNodeValidator(t *testing.T) {
 								},
 							},
 						},
+						{
+							Name: "fake_5",
+							MatchFeatures: v1alpha1.FeatureMatcher{
+								{
+									Feature: "unknown.unknown",
+									MatchExpressions: &v1alpha1.MatchExpressionSet{
+										"name": &v1alpha1.MatchExpression{Op: v1alpha1.MatchIn, Value: v1alpha1.MatchValue{"instance_1"}},
+									},
+								},
+							},
+						},
 					},
 				},
 			},
@@ -219,6 +230,19 @@ func TestNodeValidator(t *testing.T) {
 							},
 						},
 					},
+					{
+						Name:    "fake_5",
+						IsMatch: false,
+						MatchedExpressions: []MatchedExpression{
+							{
+								Feature:     "unknown.unknown",
+								Name:        "name",
+								Expression:  &v1alpha1.MatchExpression{Op: v1alpha1.MatchIn, Value: v1alpha1.MatchValue{"instance_1"}},
+								MatcherType: MatchExpressionType,
+								IsMatch:     false,
+							},
+						},
+					},
 				},
 			},
 		}