Repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied

Question

I have a docker-compose.yml file that should spin up a test server for me to run my integration tests against:

version: '3.8'
services:
  testserver:
    image: registry.gitlab.com/group/image:latest
...

On my .gitlab-ci.yml file I have the following scripts to log into the container registry so that I can pull the private image.

before_script:
  - echo '>>>>> DEBUG - install all required packages and project dependencies'
  - apk update && apk add nodejs npm git
  - npm install --global yarn
  - yarn install
  - echo '>>>>> DEBUG - login to the container registry'
  - docker login registry.gitlab.com -u $CONTAINER_REGISTRY_USER -p $CONTAINER_REGISTRY_TOKEN
  - echo '>>>>> DEBUG - create the docker container'
  - docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up --force-recreate -d && sleep 3

On my CI/CD output, I see the following logs:

$ echo '>>>>> DEBUG - login to the container registry'
>>>>> DEBUG - login to the container registry

$ docker login registry.gitlab.com -u $CONTAINER_REGISTRY_USER -p $CONTAINER_REGISTRY_TOKEN
Login Succeeded

$ echo '>>>>> DEBUG - create the docker container'
>>>>> DEBUG - create the docker container

$ docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up --force-recreate -d && sleep 3
 testserver Pulling 
 testserver Error 
Error response from daemon: pull access denied for registry.gitlab.com/group/image, repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied

I'm confused because I see a Login Succeeded being outputted but as soon as I do a docker compose up, I get this error:

repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied