The hosts start the final round of group games in third place, one point behind the Mexicans and Portugal, who face New Zealand in the other group game, with Russia knowing anything but a victory is likely to see them bow out before the semi-final stage.
In a warm-up for next summer's World Cup on home soil, that could have a negative knock-on effect for the Russians' mindset, though Cherchesov's thoughts are only on passing the immediate test in front of them.
"The hurdle runners, when they run and have to pass each hurdle, they don't think about the 10th hurdle, they think about each hurdle at a time," the Russian coach said.
"While thinking about the third hurdle you can stumble at the first hurdle so this is not what we do.
"We don't really think in those terms - this is sport and we're simply preparing for the game tomorrow.
"We know what we need to do and we don't think that far ahead. Our guys are very confident so we're not thinking about the future; we're thinking about today."
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Cherchesov is a larger-than-life character who certainly did not seem to show the pressures of a potential exit at his press conference in Kazan.
The Russian boss was asked whether he had received any backlash to an image of him of with Cristiano Ronaldo which was taken after the Real Madrid forward had scored Portugal's winner on Wednesday.
"What's so strange about the fact I took a photo with someone," Cherchesov replied. "Is he an alien?"
The Confederations Cup has not quite captured the imagination of the Russian public, with swathes of empty seats even seen during games involving the hosts.
The ambivalence towards the tournament could grow should Russia be eliminated during the group stages, yet Mexico boss Juan Carlos Osorio does not fear dubious decisions going the hosts' way to give them a helping hand towards qualification.
"We believe in fair play," he said.
"We think that FIFA is recovering the trust of everybody who loves football so we're quite sure nothing strange will happen. We believe the refereeing will be fair, transparent and the winner will be the one that deserves it. We're focused on what we can have an impact on.
"I think this a perfect scenario for Mexican football. We play away from home against the hosts with a lot of support from their fans fighting for qualification.
"We need to control the game and we need to show to ourselves that we can compete under such difficult circumstances and hopefully we will make a step forward."
Mexico made eight changes for the second game against New Zealand and will be without defender Carlos Salcedo, while PSV Eindhoven's Hector Moreno is also a doubt.
