vlookup - Match partial string

[carlrover]

Found a few things on here that I thought might do the trick, but haven't been able to find anything that actually works for what I need, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am trying to match a part of string using Vlookup to an array of known normalized values.

For example, I have a set of cells with strings like:
[TABLE="width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Short Description[/TD]
[TD]#1[/TD]
[TD]#2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][XYZ] [HBDG843] Text Option Alpha Blue dw.23948532 (ewa90qnvwierfn)[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][ABC] - WEX12>WEZ13 GB.2345345239 Text Option Delta Green 4334qte[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][MNO] [something] 345rqre Text Option Charlie Grey tq34ttt-4q3tsdd[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

The array would be something like this:
[TABLE="width: 500"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]Normalized Description
[/TD]
[TD]#1
[/TD]
[TD]#2
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Text Option Alpha Blue[/TD]
[TD]4.5[/TD]
[TD]2.3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Text Option Delta Green[/TD]
[TD]1.2[/TD]
[TD]2.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Text Option Charlie Grey[/TD]
[TD]3.4[/TD]
[TD]2.7[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

I would like to match the Short Description to the Normalized Short Description, but everything I have seen seems to work the other way around, which is not what I want.

Any ideas?

Thanks!