diff --git a/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/balloons-busybox.yaml.in b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/balloons-busybox.yaml.in
index 8bc86de3e..41413bf9c 100644
--- a/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/balloons-busybox.yaml.in
+++ b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/balloons-busybox.yaml.in
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ metadata:
   "; fi)
   labels:
     app: ${NAME}
+  $(if [ -n "$POD_LABEL" ]; then echo "
+    $POD_LABEL
+  "; fi)
 spec:
   containers:
   $(for contnum in $(seq 1 ${CONTCOUNT}); do echo "
diff --git a/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/match-config.yaml b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/match-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..29d68649e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/match-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+config:
+  reservedResources:
+    cpu: 750m
+  pinCPU: true
+  pinMemory: true
+  idleCPUClass: normal
+  allocatorTopologyBalancing: true
+  balloonTypes:
+  - name: special
+    matchExpressions:
+      - key: pod/labels/app.kubernetes.io/component
+        operator: Equals
+        values: [ "precious" ]
+    minCPUs: 2
+    maxCPUs: 2
+  - name: default
+    namespaces:
+      - default
+    minCPUs: 1
+    maxCPUs: 1
+    allocatorPriority: normal
+  reservedPoolNamespaces:
+    - kube-system
+  log:
+    debug:
+      - policy
+      - expression
diff --git a/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/n4c16/test11-match-expression/code.var.sh b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/n4c16/test11-match-expression/code.var.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..70b065532
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/policies.test-suite/balloons/n4c16/test11-match-expression/code.var.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Test placing containers with and without annotations to correct balloons
+# reserved and shared CPUs.
+
+helm-terminate
+helm_config=${TEST_DIR}/../../match-config.yaml helm-launch balloons
+
+cleanup() {
+    vm-command "kubectl delete pods --all --now"
+    return 0
+}
+
+cleanup
+
+# pod0: run precious workload
+POD_LABEL="app.kubernetes.io/component: precious" CONTCOUNT=1 create balloons-busybox
+report allowed
+verify 'len(cpus["pod0c0"]) == 2'
+
+# pod1: run ordinary workload
+CONTCOUNT=1 create balloons-busybox
+report allowed
+verify 'len(cpus["pod1c0"]) == 1'
+
+cleanup