diff --git a/system/src/Grav/Common/Markdown/ParsedownGravTrait.php b/system/src/Grav/Common/Markdown/ParsedownGravTrait.php
index e972e471c..c507606bd 100644
--- a/system/src/Grav/Common/Markdown/ParsedownGravTrait.php
+++ b/system/src/Grav/Common/Markdown/ParsedownGravTrait.php
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ trait ParsedownGravTrait
     protected $pages_dir;
     protected $special_chars;
 
-    protected $twig_link_regex = '/\!*\[(?:.*)\]\(([{{|{%|{#].*[#}|%}|}}])\)/';
+    protected $twig_link_regex = '/\!*\[(?:.*)\]\((\{([\{%#])\s*(.*?)\s*(?:\2|\})\})\)/';
 
     /**
      * Initialiazation function to setup key variables needed by the MarkdownGravLinkTrait
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ trait ParsedownGravTrait
             $url = parse_url(htmlspecialchars_decode($excerpt['element']['attributes']['href']));
 
             // if there is no scheme, the file is local
-            if (!isset($url['scheme'])) {
+            if (!isset($url['scheme']) and (count($url) > 0)) {
                 // convert the URl is required
                 $excerpt['element']['attributes']['href'] = $this->convertUrl(Uri::buildUrl($url));
             }