diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder.java
index 2d6db518b20..b99b97fea97 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder.java
@@ -70,13 +70,6 @@ class HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder {
 				this.nextSemicolonPosition = this.originalMessage.indexOf(';', this.nextPotentialReferencePosition + 1);
 			}
 
-			boolean isPotentialReference = (this.nextPotentialReferencePosition != -1 &&
-					this.nextSemicolonPosition != -1 &&
-					this.nextSemicolonPosition - this.nextPotentialReferencePosition < MAX_REFERENCE_SIZE);
-
-			if (isPotentialReference) {
-				break;
-			}
 			if (this.nextPotentialReferencePosition == -1) {
 				break;
 			}
@@ -84,6 +77,9 @@ class HtmlCharacterEntityDecoder {
 				this.nextPotentialReferencePosition = -1;
 				break;
 			}
+			if (this.nextSemicolonPosition - this.nextPotentialReferencePosition < MAX_REFERENCE_SIZE) {
+				break;
+			}
 
 			this.nextPotentialReferencePosition = this.nextPotentialReferencePosition + 1;
 		}