Although they have one foot in next year's finals in Poland and Ukraine, the Croatians will take nothing for granted against the team that knocked them out of the Euro 2008 quarter-finals after equalising with the last kick of extra-time.
With the score 1-1 after 120 minutes, the Turks won the penalty shootout and sent their fans into raptures in Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium but they were powerless against a galvanised Croatia side in Istanbul on Friday.
"I don't think we will ever be able to get the 2008 defeat completely out of our system but we have already forgotten the game in Istanbul," Bilic told reporters.
"The first thing we all said in the dressing room was that we are only halfway through our task because we face a difficult 90 minutes on our own turf.
"We will head into the game confident after earning a three-goal cushion in the Turk Telekom Arena, where all the pieces came together for us."
Although he will miss suspended defender Vedran Corluka and midfielder Tomislav Dujmovic, Bilic has plenty to choose from in a squad eager to kickstart a party in Zagreb's Maksimir stadium.
Danijel Pranjic will stand in for Corluka at left-back while Ognjen Vukojevic should step in as the holding midfielder and Borussia Dortmund's in-form forward Ivan Perisic could be preferred to veteran striker Ivica Olic.
Criticised by Turkish media for a tepid performance, Hiddink was also lambasted by Atletico Madrid forward Arda, who was quoted as saying by the Milliyet newspaper that the coach's tactics had invited the rout.
"Hiddink's choices opened the way for this result, we had a problem up front in particular because our boss played [Burak] Yilmaz alone up front and we were ineffective in front of goal," Arda was quoted as saying.
"We should have played with at least three players in attack but our boss showed timidity based on our opponents' place in the world rankings.
"If your boss managing you from the touchline doesn't trust his footballers, you are already starting the match 1-0 down."
"It will not be a return leg with the makings of a friendly match because Turkey are a good team and they are coming here to get a result,
