countif function with text compare

countif function with text compare

In a spreadsheet I would like to count the numbers of occurences of a certain text in an area. Both the area and the text are referenced. Example:
The area with text cells is B3:K3
The compare text is in cell A2
In Cell A1 I would like to display the number of occurences, so I'd expect to use a formula like this in cell A1:
=countif(B3:K3;=A2)
Doesn't work as countif compares only values or expressions. Is there any workaround?