diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e136eab6..d5ef98a1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -82,9 +82,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org).
 
   Nor is this a perfect solution, as there may still be issues when function calls have array arguments that themselves contain function calls; but it's still better than the current logic.
 - Fix for escaping double quotes within a formula [Issue #1971](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/issues/1971) [PR #2651](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/pull/2651)
+- Fix for reading files in the root directory of a ZipFile, which should not be prefixed by relative paths ("./") as dirname($filename) does by default. 
 - Fix invalid style of cells in empty columns with columnDimensions and rows with rowDimensions in added external sheet. [PR #2739](https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/pull/2739)
 
-
 ## 1.22.0 - 2022-02-18
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Reader/Xlsx.php b/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Reader/Xlsx.php
index 18ed7987..a6e7fe03 100644
--- a/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Reader/Xlsx.php
+++ b/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Reader/Xlsx.php
@@ -368,6 +368,9 @@ class Xlsx extends BaseReader
         if (strpos($fileName, '//') !== false) {
             $fileName = substr($fileName, strpos($fileName, '//') + 1);
         }
+        // Relative paths generated by dirname($filename) when $filename
+        // has no path (i.e.files in root of the zip archive)
+        $fileName = (string) preg_replace('/^\.\//', '', $fileName);
         $fileName = File::realpath($fileName);
 
         // Sadly, some 3rd party xlsx generators don't use consistent case for filenaming
diff --git a/tests/PhpSpreadsheetTests/Reader/Xlsx/XlsxRootZipFilesTest.php b/tests/PhpSpreadsheetTests/Reader/Xlsx/XlsxRootZipFilesTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..110c70b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/PhpSpreadsheetTests/Reader/Xlsx/XlsxRootZipFilesTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheetTests\Reader\Xlsx;
+
+use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Reader\Xlsx;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+
+class XlsxRootZipFilesTest extends TestCase
+{
+    /**
+     * @var string
+     */
+    private static $testbook = 'tests/data/Reader/XLSX/rootZipFiles.xlsx';
+
+    public function testXlsxRootZipFiles(): void
+    {
+        $filename = self::$testbook;
+        $reader = new Xlsx();
+        $spreadsheet = $reader->load($filename);
+        $sheet = $spreadsheet->getActiveSheet();
+        $value = $sheet->getCell('A1')->getValue();
+        self::assertSame('TEST CELL', $value->getPlainText());
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/data/Reader/XLSX/rootZipFiles.xlsx b/tests/data/Reader/XLSX/rootZipFiles.xlsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3de12790
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/Reader/XLSX/rootZipFiles.xlsx differ