diff --git a/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns.go b/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns.go
index e5bb013444fc..74386d76f686 100644
--- a/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns.go
+++ b/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns.go
@@ -151,10 +151,10 @@ func (w *Workload) getCoreDNSInfo(ctx context.Context, clusterConfig *kubeadmv1.
 	// Handle imageRepository.
 	toImageRepository := fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", reference.Domain(parsedImage), reference.Path(parsedImage))
 	if clusterConfig.ImageRepository != "" {
-		toImageRepository = fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", clusterConfig.ImageRepository, reference.Path(parsedImage))
+		toImageRepository = fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", clusterConfig.ImageRepository, coreDNSKey)
 	}
 	if clusterConfig.DNS.ImageRepository != "" {
-		toImageRepository = fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", clusterConfig.DNS.ImageRepository, reference.Path(parsedImage))
+		toImageRepository = fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", clusterConfig.DNS.ImageRepository, coreDNSKey)
 	}
 
 	// Handle imageTag.
diff --git a/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns_test.go b/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns_test.go
index c6d3307f449e..b35da3c32137 100644
--- a/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns_test.go
+++ b/controlplane/kubeadm/internal/workload_cluster_coredns_test.go
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ func TestUpdateCoreDNSCorefile(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestGetCoreDNSInfo(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Run("get coredns info", func(t *testing.T) {
-		expectedImage := "k8s.gcr.io/coredns:1.6.2"
+		expectedImage := "k8s.gcr.io/some-folder/coredns:1.6.2"
 		depl := &appsv1.Deployment{
 			TypeMeta: v1.TypeMeta{
 				Kind:       "Deployment",
@@ -345,14 +345,14 @@ func TestGetCoreDNSInfo(t *testing.T) {
 				name: "uses global config ImageRepository if DNS ImageRepository is not set",
 				objs: []runtime.Object{depl, cm},
 				clusterConfig: &kubeadmv1.ClusterConfiguration{
-					ImageRepository: "globalRepo",
+					ImageRepository: "globalRepo/sub-path",
 					DNS: kubeadmv1.DNS{
 						ImageMeta: kubeadmv1.ImageMeta{
 							ImageTag: "1.7.2-foobar.1",
 						},
 					},
 				},
-				toImage: "globalRepo/coredns:1.7.2-foobar.1",
+				toImage: "globalRepo/sub-path/coredns:1.7.2-foobar.1",
 			},
 			{
 				name: "uses DNS ImageRepository config if both global and DNS-level are set",