Injured trio Thanos Petsos, Stephan Palla and Dominik Starkl were all unavailable to coach Zoran Barisic, celebrating his first match in charge since signing a contract extension with the club. Other than that "Zoki" had a strong hand to pick from, and it was just as well as the visitors to Hütteldorf on Saturday were none other than Austrian champions RB Salzburg. The guests represented a great challenge for our young emerging side, and also a huge hurdle as our march for second place in the Bundesliga goes down to the wire.Clash of the roundThe opening exchanges between the two Austrian heavyweights consisted mainly of short arm jabs, with both sides feeling their way into the encounter. The first heavy blow was struck by a vibrant Rapid side - a blow which lead to the opening goal. An outswinging Steffen Hofmann corner was met by Terrence Boyd, who had managed to win a couple of yards of space in the Salzburg box before powering a header past the helpless Gulacsi - 1:0 and the Hanappi rocking after a quarter of an hours play! Rapid looked to cash in on the dream start as firstly Dominik Wydra flashed a stinging drive just wide of the target (25.), before Christopher Trimmel also got a shot off on goal (27.).Directly after Trimmel's effort Salzburg manufactured their first shot on goal when a dangerous cross into the box from Ulmer was met by Kevin Kampl, who guided his attempt wide of the target (28.). It was the Hütteldorfers though who continued to call the tune their high tempo pressing and commitment in challenges thwarting the much fabled Salzburg attacking unit. Shortly before the break Marcel Sabitzer almost double Rapid's advantage, producing an acrobatic effort that went inches wide of the target (45.).  Sublime finish by Boyd  The frantic tempo dipped a little at the start of the second half, but the game remained an entertaining and high quality affair. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Salzburg came out with renewed vigour for the second forty-five, got their foot on the ball and began to push Rapid a little deeper than Barisic would have wanted. They also carved out some chances, the best of which saw Mane played in on Novota, but the ever reliable Slovak-stopper came out on top and the slender margin remained in tact.Just as it looked as though the storm had been weathered, Salzburg's efforts finally bore fruit: a decent passing move played Kampl in down the right, his deep cross rescued by Sadio Mane, who rolled the ball across an open net for Alan to tap in from a matter of feet - 1:1 (68.). The guests then threatened to turn the game on its head when a bullet free kick from Soriano crashed into the cross bar and away to safety (73.).With Salzburg now shading proceedings, the Hütteldorfers produced a move of immense quality of their own to forge ahead: substitute Louis Schaub tricked his way forwards, offloading the ball to Deni Alar, who split the Salzburg defence with a perfectly weighted through ball for Terrence Boyd, the American producing a sublime low finish to beat Gulacsi all ends up in the far corner - 2:1 (85.)!! Now the Hanappi was really rocking, and with the raucous support of the Green & White faithful Rapid saw out the remaining minutes to claim a massive win. With only two games to go we've now opened up a six point gap back to fourth. Next up for Rapid is Wacker Innsbruck at home in the penultimate game of the season. RAPID!!Trainer Zoran Barisic: "It was a perfect day with regards to the result at least. The first half was pretty even, characterised by effort and fully committed tackling. In the second half we weren't as present as an attacking force. We went into our shell a bit, conceded an equaliser but pulled off the win on the break. You've seen that you need a little bit of luck to beat Salzburg. I think that that means we've got a Europa League spot."tipp3-Bundesliga, Match Day 34SK Rapid - RB Salzburg 2:1 (1:0)Hanappi-Stadium, 17.200 Attendance, Ref MuckenhammerGoals: 1:0 Boyd (15.), 1:1 Alan (68.), 2:1 Boyd (84.)SK Rapid: Novota - Trimmel, Sonnleitner, Dibon (73./M. Hofmann), Schrammel - Behrendt, Wydra - Burgstaller (73./Schaub), S. Hofmann (84./Alar), Sabitzer - BoydRB Salzburg: Gulacsi - Klein, Ramalho, Hinteregger, Ulmer - Ilsanker (67./Berisha) - Kampl, C. Leitgeb (46./Lazaro), Mane - Soriano, Alan (90./R. Zulj)Yellow Cards: Trimmel, S. Hofmann, Sabitzer, Behrendt Alan(gw)