Croatia's third place finish at the 1996 World Cup is perhaps considered as the country's greatest sporting victory.
Bilic was part of the team that helped Croatia win the bronze medal in France, and he knows how much it means to the team who are looking to secure a place in the final.
Bilic spoke to the 'ITV' team following Croatia's win over Russia, and said: "It is more than football."
"To be fair, we've had some good sportsmen like Ivanisevic in tennis, he won Wimbledon, basketball is huge and we were good."
"But that success, that bronze medal from 1998 is still the best achievement in sports because football is the number one sport."
"So this means more than just a semi-final of the World Cup."
Bilic insists however that Croatia will want to get in the history books for bettering the third place finish of 1998.
"Of course, they want to go to the final," he said. "It's going to be a good game and I'm expecting us to do better against England because they are playing a little bit differently."
"They are more dangerous when they have the ball but they are more vulnerable when they don't have the ball. So hopefully we are going to play the way we can."