Logging In With Sql’s COUNT Function

Helle Fellow Programmers!

Unlike last time where I was checking for matching rows count using mysqli_stmt_rows_count():

https://www.daniweb.com/programming/web-development/threads/539306/login-with-prepared-statements-mysqli-stmt-num-rows-function

On this thread, I am checking for matching rows count using Sql's COUNT function.

This means, both threads are not same so mods do not close them.

Issue is, on both threads, no matter if I give correct password or incorrect, I always get message 'Incorrect user Credentials'.
Why is that ?
The details on Mysql Looks like this:

id | domain | password
0 | gmail.com | 373b29d2837e83b9ca5cec712a5985843df271cc

Obviously, password is hashed using sha_256.

Here is the php code:

ini_set("display_errors",1);
ini_set("display_startup_errors",1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

echo login_form();

if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST')
{
    echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

    check_user_input();

    echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

    process_login_form();

    echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE
}


function login_form()
{
    echo 
    '
    <div name="center pane" id="center pane" align="center" size="50px" width="33%">
    <form method="POST" action="" name="login_form" id="login_form" width="50%">
    <fieldset>
    <label for="domain">Domain</label>
    <input type="text" name="domain" id="domain" size="50" minlength="5" maxlength="253" title="Input your Domain" placeholder="yourdomain.tld">
    <br>
    <label for="password">Password</label>
    <input type="text" name="password" id="password" size="50" minlength="8" maxlength="25" title="Input your Password" placeholder="alpha-numerical-chars">
    <br>
    </fieldset>
    <fieldset>
    <button type="submit" name="login" id="login" title="Submit Form">Login!</button>
    </fieldset>
    </form>
    </div>
    ';
}


function check_user_input()
{
    if(!EMPTY($_POST['domain']))
    {
        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

        $domain = trim($_POST['domain']);
    }
    elseif(!EMPTY($_POST['domain_email']))
    {
        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

        $domain_email = trim($_POST['domain_email']);
    }
    else
    {
        die('Input your Domain');
    }

    if(!EMPTY($_POST['password']))
    {
        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

        $hashed_password = hash('sha256',$_POST['password']); 
    }
}


function process_login_form()
{
    echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

    Global $domain;
    Global $password; //DELETE
    Global $hashed_password;

    //Query DB.
    //Check if User already registered or not.
    mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR|MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);
    $conn = mysqli_connect("localhost","root","","buzz"); //mysqli_connect("server","user","password","db");
    $stmt = mysqli_stmt_init($conn);
    $sql_count = "SELECT COUNT('id') FROM domains WHERE domain = ? AND password = ?";

    if(!mysqli_stmt_prepare($stmt,$sql_count))
    {
        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

        echo 'Mysqli Error: ' .mysqli_stmt_error(); //DEV MODE.
        echo '<br>';
        echo 'Mysqli Error No: ' .mysqli_stmt_errno(); //DEV MODE.
        echo '<br>';
        die('Registration a Failure!');
    }
    else
    {
        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE

        mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt,"ss",$domain,$hashed_password);
        mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
        mysqli_stmt_bind_result($stmt,$rows_count);
        mysqli_stmt_fetch($stmt);

        if($rows_count<1) //User not registered.
        {
            echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE
            echo 'password: '.$password; echo '<br>';
            echo 'hashed password: '.$hashed_password; echo '<br>';

            mysqli_stmt_close($stmt);
            mysqli_close($conn);
            die('Incorrect User Credentials!');
        }
        mysqli_stmt_close($stmt);
        mysqli_close($conn);

        echo __LINE__; echo '<br>';//DELETE
        echo 'password: ' .$password; echo '<br>';
        echo 'hashed password: ' .$hashed_password; echo '<br>';

        header('location: home.php');
        exit;
    }
}